It's all in the details!

One of the problems with memory is that it is not fail-safe!  There are scientists who say that everything we have experienced is stored somewhere in our brain, but it’s the recalling that becomes a problem as we age.  And it might be a blessing, actually, because some things are better left forgotten.

Memory becomes an issue with my elephant collection--I have nearly 150!  If I had been thinking, I would have started early on labeling each elephant I received, from whom or where and the date.  I didn’t start that until recently, when I realized that I cannot remember those important details with many of the elephants I have in my collection.  Today’s elephant is sort of like that.  When we travel to a new place, I always try to find some kind of elephant that is different, unique.  I have a memory around the origin of this elephant, but I can’t remember if I got it in Mexico or San Antonio—(or somewhere else, even!)

What I do remember about it is that I purchased it in a shop where people indigenous to the area created beautiful, intricate beadwork.  (As I later researched this, I found a clue as to where I probably got this elephant--the native people who do this kind of beadwork are the Huicho people located in the Jalisco and Nayaret areas of Mexico. Puerto Vallarta was one of our destinations a few years back, and since it is located in the Jalisco area, my guess is that was location where I purchased this.) 

This particular elephant is small; many of the animals and other beadwork were of greater size which only meant more beads, more time, more patience, placing each tiny bead on the animal and consequently more dollars out of my pocket! So I opted for one of the small elephants. We were fortunate to actually watch a couple of these artisans working on their creations and I marveled at the patience and skill which the artisans employed.    Unfortunately the battery on my decent camera needs to be replaced and I was forced to take these photos with my Blackberry.  And I can safely say, the photos do not adequately capture the intricacy and detail of this marvelous beadwork. 

I’m reading a fascinating book right now, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard.  It’s an essay, in a sense, of an entire year of her careful observation at the creek near which she lived.  It’s a challenging book to read in many ways, because the vocabulary is extensive, the amount of science and philosophy and detail in her descriptions are daunting.  The complexity of the detail in her writing, is rivaled only by the complexity of the detail of that which she is writing – the natural world.  She has a deep fascination and appreciation for the complexity and detail in nature. It’s hard to imagine, unfathomable really, the infinite diversity, complexity of the created world.  As Dillard displays in her book, the more one gets into the “hidden” spaces of nature, the more “hidden” there is yet to find.

I look at my elephant and marvel at the tiny beads perfectly placed within an order, a pattern that creates beauty.  And yet this man-made craft, beautiful and special as it is, in no way approaches the intricacy of the natural world, the natural order of things.  And for me, anyway, it’s further example or of a master Creator.  

"...then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun.  Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning.  Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it."  Ecclesiastes 8:17