{"id":11408,"date":"2019-06-07T18:14:47","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T18:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=11408"},"modified":"2019-06-07T18:14:47","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T18:14:47","slug":"thinking-simply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/07\/thinking-simply\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking Simply"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY HARRY WEEKES<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Sparkling Violetear is widespread in the highlands of northern and western South America. Photo credit: Joseph C Boone, public domain photo, accessed via Wikipedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am sitting on the left shoulder of Imbabura, a 15,000-foot stratovolcano in the northern Ecuadorian highlands, having taken the place of one of our trip leaders for our seniors\u2019 final field study. It is the end of May and, after an afternoon of eating cuy con papas y ensalada (Guinea pig with potatoes and salad), and fumbling through broken Spanish, I strolled outside to \u201ccatch a hummingbird\u201d\u2014my offhanded phrase for doing a little birding in the garden.
\nIt didn\u2019t take long before the heavy buzz of a bird in flight drew me in. Drew me in to a disorienting vortex of ignorance. OK, maybe it wasn\u2019t that bad (I blame the rarefied air of the Andes and the interesting feeling of being nestled amongst three volcanoes for drawing out a certain hyperbole). But the ignorance was real and stark
\nIn the nearly 800-page \u201cBirds of Ecuador\u201d book at our inn, 54 pages are dedicated to hummingbirds. The hummingbirds themselves are nestled between the \u201cSwifts\u201d and \u201cTrogons and Quetzals.\u201d Trogons and Quetzals? These are birds that are either totally unfamiliar to me, or which flit across my mindscape in a vaguely cartoon way. The good thing is, seeing their names put me in a fictional state of mind and prepared me to flip through the pages on hummingbirds, which read as much like a casting call for a movie on mythical woodland beings as anything else: Bronzy Hermit, Band-tailed Barbthroat, Black-thighed Puffleg, Shining Sunbeam.
\nIt didn\u2019t take long to realize that not only was I not in Idaho anymore, but also that it was going to be incredibly difficult to identify anything here. This dovetailed nicely with a thought I was having about my difficulties with Spanish. As a 50-year-old, I tend not to \u201cthink simply.\u201d In other words, when I am eating fried cuy, my thoughts range to things like, \u201cWhat is the gestation period of a Guinea pig?\u201d \u201cHow many babies are in a litter?\u201d \u201cHow does one go about being a Guinea pig rancher?\u201d Suffice to say, translating these ideas into conversation is a bit out of my linguistic range.
\nThis made me realize how important it is to inhabit a real beginner\u2019s mind. In language, that\u2019s thinking of the simplest thing. \u201cThis is good.\u201d \u201cI like potatoes.\u201d \u201cThank you.\u201d
\nIn birding, it\u2019s not starting with a hundred tropical hummingbirds and working to distinguish the white-whiskered, green, and tawny-bellied hermits. It\u2019s turning the cartoon of thought (\u201chummingbird\u201d) into a cartoon on paper and writing things like: Hummingbird. Big. Greenish. Purply around the head. And even this simplicity masks the most important starting point\u2014sitting outside and just being with things.
\nSometimes, this is just sitting and being comfortable talking like an adult baby. Other times, it is just sitting and looking at really general characteristics and qualities and building from there. The Sparkling Violetear is a big hummingbird. It buzzes and chirps in gardens and open spaces along the entire spine of the Ecuadorian Andes. From its prominent perch it will routinely make buzzing flights and then return.
\nSitting in the garden, the bird was like a little idea\u2014perched on a high branch. The little idea took flight and I stared at the now-empty space. Several seconds later, the bird landed on the same perch. Orejivioleta Ventriazul. The Sparkling Violetear. Hummingbird. A simple hummingbird.<\/p>\n

Harry Weekes is the founder and head of school at The Sage School in Hailey. This is his 47th year in the Wood River Valley, where he lives with his wife Hilary and their three kids\u2014Georgia, Penelope and Simon\u2014a nice little flock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY HARRY WEEKES I am sitting on the left shoulder of Imbabura, a 15,000-foot stratovolcano in the northern Ecuadorian highlands, having taken the place of one of our trip leaders for our seniors\u2019 final field study. It is the end of May and, after an afternoon of eating cuy con papas y ensalada (Guinea pig […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11409,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,34,36],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-commentary","8":"category-science-place","9":"category-slider"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}