What does the blizzard teach those who know him not?
[voice from the Other Side - Sha'Tara]
Yes, it's only the end of November and we are experiencing a blizzard here, in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It's an unusual event, especially for this time of year. Following a long, very hot and dry summer makes it even more unusual. Is it just aberrant weather or part of some climactic planetary change? Or is it more?
What can such an event teach, beyond caution when driving?
"Above all else, the Mentat must be a generalist, not a specialist. It is wise to have decisions of great moment monitored by generalists. Experts and specialists lead you quickly into chaos. They are a source of useless nit-picking, the ferocious quibble over a comma. The Mentat-generalist, on the other hand, should bring to decision-making a healthy common sense. He must not cut himself off from the broad sweep of what is happening in his universe. He must remain capable of saying: "There's no real mystery about this at the moment. This is what we want now. It may prove wrong later, but we'll correct that when we come to it.
"The Mentat-generalist must understand that anything which we can identify as our universe is merely part of larger phenomena. But the expert looks backward; he looks into the narrow standards of his own specialty. The generalist looks outward; he looks for living principles, knowing full well that such principles change, that they develop. It is to the characteristics of change itself that the Mentat-generalist must look. There can be no permanent catalogue of such change. You must look at it with as few preconceptions as possible, asking yourself: "Now what is this thing doing?"
(The Mentat Handbook - Children of Dune - Frank Herbert)
I look outside and I see snow, quite a bit of snow, in a landscape normally green and wet at this time. That snow indicates a change. How do I "see" that change?
I can follow the weather man and see a slight blip in the normal weather pattern and speculate on tomorrow's driving conditions.
I can listen to the promoters of "earth changes" and believe I'm in the midst of a shattering climactic "change" caused by cosmic forces.
I can check the fridge to see if there's enough beer to see me through several sporting events on TV.
If all I give myself is choice between the above, the last one is by far the wisest.
Is there anything else I can derive from this weather?
Yes. I too can ask meaningfully: "What is this thing doing?" and wait for the answers to come tumbling from every possible direction, a veritable storm of revelations from which to see my world in a number of different perspectives.
The gift of change! The gift of life!
