How we see the world is framed by our understanding of how things are.
And in turn, that is reinforced by the language we use.
Suzanne Simard provided a brilliant demonstration of this in her conversation with Krista Tippett for the On Being podcast this week: Forests are wired for wisdom.
In talking about her work in the understory of forests, Suzanne outlined the challenge of engaging with the contemporary scientific community in the 1990s, even though her work was scientifically rigorous.
She couldn’t be heard because she was talking about things that couldn’t be seen. The paradigm of scientific inquiry was not looking that way.
What do we struggle to hear that lies below the surface of what we can see?