Robin Wall Kimmerer — The Intelligence in All Kinds of Life

On Being : Robin Wall Kimmerer — The Intelligence in All Kinds of Life Image
On Being : Robin Wall Kimmerer — The Intelligence in All Kinds of Life Image

Robin Wall Kimmerer — The Intelligence in All Kinds of Life

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“Why is the world so beautiful?” — this is a question Robin Wall Kimmerer pursues as a botanist and also as a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She writes, “Science polishes the gift of seeing, indigenous traditions work with gifts of listening and language.” An expert in moss — a bryologist — she describes mosses as the “coral reefs of the forest.” Her work opens a sense of wonder and humility for the intelligence in all kinds of life we are used to naming and imagining as “inanimate.” She says that as our knowledge about plant life unfolds, human vocabulary and imaginations must adapt.