After three hours in the sweltering Texas sun doing yard work or what I'm sure my friend Jeremy would call "gardening" which sounds so much more classy and elegant than the sweaty, dirty work I was doing…I had an epiphany – well maybe that's overstating it or me trying to make some hair brained thoughts I had sound more intellectual and classy and elegant.
But here's what I was thinking…
Diversity is a good thing. Maybe that's ironically a black & white, or an absolute statement but it has always been dogma for me – "always" meaning since I first joined a diversity team in 1991. We had a whitepaper that said that in every scientific discipline diversity is a positive factor – a good thing. Homogeneity loses to heterogeneity in the long run. So with that background in mind I'm in the "garden" pulling all these damn weeds and "volunteer" plants and I had a "moment" (I think a moment of "clarity," you my think it was a moment of "insanity," different views are what diversity is all about, right?).
Human beings do not naturally seek diversity. As thinking people we defy desires and "nature" and seek diversity because we intellectually "get it." If diversity is always good then why do I have such a strong need to pull plants out that are "different?" I'm extremely frustrated that Bermuda grass is springing up everywhere and I go after it like some kind of botanical crusader. Home Depot sells seed for Bermuda grass so it's not like it is in and of itself bad in the plant world but it's not what I wanted. It does add diversity to the yard but I already did that – planned diversity – just the right amount – I DON"T WANT MORE! If diversity is good why is my limit in plant diversity so rigid? I am an unreformed botanical bigot. Sure diversity is good but I have my limits. Crazy thing is that in the current Texas drought the Bermuda is out performing all my carefully selected plants – it appears to be able to thrive in the heat and the minimal water we've provided but it's just too much – I get to define "different" and when my limit is reached I kill (or attempt to kill is more accurate) any additional difference. Then a very weird thing happened – I started to stereotype the Bermuda with anthropomorphic characteristics – it is "sneaky" because the biggest patch was right behind a huge Blue Agave where I had to risk life and limb to get to it (them) – how dare it (they) put me out like that?? And a couple of times I had to admire the way Bermuda will break off rather than surrender its roots but you would never have known that if you had heard the words I heaped upon it!!
My rationalization or attempt to make myself feel better is that the Bermuda if allowed in my yard would initially be more diverse but Bermuda would kill off all the plants that I wanted and soon my yard would be a homogeneous, non-diverse Bermuda patch. So ultimately by denying this additional diversity I protect diversity.
Now if that doesn't sound like bigots everywhere I don't know what would! Hitler wanted to rid the world of Jews because they were different from his ideal. He fueled hatred by describing Jews as sneaky, cunning, and destructive to the future of Germany. The Klan wanted to keep African-Americans "in-line" because if they were allowed equality and justice they would just take over and destroy life as Southern whites knew it.
I don't want to go on and on – well actually I do but I have work to do and a play to see. My questions are – is diversity always a good thing or is there a limit? If there is a limit, who gets to decide how much is healthy? How can an educated mostly rational person who claims to value diversity abjectly refuse it beyond a certain limit? And can the heat cause hysteria and lead someone to get this introspective about grass??
Respectfully hoping for some differences of opinions!
But here's what I was thinking…
Diversity is a good thing. Maybe that's ironically a black & white, or an absolute statement but it has always been dogma for me – "always" meaning since I first joined a diversity team in 1991. We had a whitepaper that said that in every scientific discipline diversity is a positive factor – a good thing. Homogeneity loses to heterogeneity in the long run. So with that background in mind I'm in the "garden" pulling all these damn weeds and "volunteer" plants and I had a "moment" (I think a moment of "clarity," you my think it was a moment of "insanity," different views are what diversity is all about, right?).
Human beings do not naturally seek diversity. As thinking people we defy desires and "nature" and seek diversity because we intellectually "get it." If diversity is always good then why do I have such a strong need to pull plants out that are "different?" I'm extremely frustrated that Bermuda grass is springing up everywhere and I go after it like some kind of botanical crusader. Home Depot sells seed for Bermuda grass so it's not like it is in and of itself bad in the plant world but it's not what I wanted. It does add diversity to the yard but I already did that – planned diversity – just the right amount – I DON"T WANT MORE! If diversity is good why is my limit in plant diversity so rigid? I am an unreformed botanical bigot. Sure diversity is good but I have my limits. Crazy thing is that in the current Texas drought the Bermuda is out performing all my carefully selected plants – it appears to be able to thrive in the heat and the minimal water we've provided but it's just too much – I get to define "different" and when my limit is reached I kill (or attempt to kill is more accurate) any additional difference. Then a very weird thing happened – I started to stereotype the Bermuda with anthropomorphic characteristics – it is "sneaky" because the biggest patch was right behind a huge Blue Agave where I had to risk life and limb to get to it (them) – how dare it (they) put me out like that?? And a couple of times I had to admire the way Bermuda will break off rather than surrender its roots but you would never have known that if you had heard the words I heaped upon it!!
My rationalization or attempt to make myself feel better is that the Bermuda if allowed in my yard would initially be more diverse but Bermuda would kill off all the plants that I wanted and soon my yard would be a homogeneous, non-diverse Bermuda patch. So ultimately by denying this additional diversity I protect diversity.
Now if that doesn't sound like bigots everywhere I don't know what would! Hitler wanted to rid the world of Jews because they were different from his ideal. He fueled hatred by describing Jews as sneaky, cunning, and destructive to the future of Germany. The Klan wanted to keep African-Americans "in-line" because if they were allowed equality and justice they would just take over and destroy life as Southern whites knew it.
I don't want to go on and on – well actually I do but I have work to do and a play to see. My questions are – is diversity always a good thing or is there a limit? If there is a limit, who gets to decide how much is healthy? How can an educated mostly rational person who claims to value diversity abjectly refuse it beyond a certain limit? And can the heat cause hysteria and lead someone to get this introspective about grass??
Respectfully hoping for some differences of opinions!
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