Gardens with Vandals, July 1, 2020
This began as a letter to a friend who, along with other local naysayers, views the destruction of my garden that my late husband and I began 46 years ago as a flaw in my perception. And since garden dreams and hopes were also involved in the making of our garden, I'll be musing about the subjective side of gardening along with gardening's objective aspects of plants, design, techniques, art, science, etc. A garden can mean many different things to different people in different circumstances - and perhaps therein - lies the heart of our loss.
Language is how people talk to each other. It can include many different ways/systems of communication, some of which are shared by other forms of life. But for the sake of argument, let's stick to human spoken/written language, to which google refers to as a "system" [used] in a "structural and conventional way."*
Logic is how people reason with each other "according to strict principles of validity."**
My opinion is that logic is just as much as a human language as Spanish, Greek or sign language, which [is a language that uses] the visual-manual modality to convey meaning.*** (Incidentally, both computer logic and sign language have facilitated communication between humans and other species like chimpanzees and the gorilla Koko. Heck, while I'm on a roll, so is war another form of language to force obedience between conqueror and conqueree. Pheromones facilitate a kind of attitude adjustment between the two sexes in all kinds of life forms in the universe called "love."
And then there are some people (just a few - usually it takes just one or a very few in a community to make life hell for others) who make money in some way off property that use the language of harassment and vandalism to force someone to sell their home and much beloved garden before they are willing to do so. I'm referring here to a very tiny minority of villainous realtors, developers, house flippers, etc with facades as "pure as driven snow", motivated by financial opportunities in a community almost done in transitioning from a 200 year old mill town's relatively inexpensive life style to a contemporary, economically "high-end", HOA type of community. And some of us don't fit their demographic vision of residents with certain "politically correct" memories of local history, opinions, hopes and dreams - not to mention the financial ability to survive in their type of world.
Anyway, I was involved in a debate this past afternoon with a friend - whom I deeply respect and admire and who doesn't mind if I disagree with him - about logic not applying to religious, mystical or fictional/fantasy subjects, but just to mathematical and scientific subjects. However in my opinion, since logic is just another type of language that "assesses the validity" of an idea, then it is as much a language as the systems of grammar/spelling used to express that idea that we know as English, Spanish or French, etc.
And, of course, since no human has posed for a security camera or has been seen vandalizing gardens or setting fires around here, then Oella is a green, safe, peaceful, friendly community where image and substance are one. And rhetorically manipulative questions like "Who would do such a thing?" or "Why just your garden and no one else's?" - that deflect focus away from the problems - "prove" no arson or vandalism has or is happening, and who needs logic when we've got good ol' common sense upon which to rely instead?
"Proving" that no human was involved in the ongoing destruction of our garden for the past 6 years, because no one has been seen over here, is a logical fallacy known as arguing from ignorance (Latin: argumentum ad ignorantiam) and is a mantra of local naysayers (what criminal wouldn't be overjoyed with support from neighbors that insist their crimes never happened?).
These are difficult times we live in now, and if I cannot bring back the garden my late husband and I made during Oella's golden horticultural age from the mid '80s to late summer 2014, then I can make a teaching lesson about how to garden with vandals. I don't know exactly what will come of this, but if nothing else can be learned from the destruction of my garden, let it be: H O P E.
*https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=5U_8Xq_vD4Of_QbxsoboBA&q=language+definition&oq=language+%2B+d&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQARgBMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjIICAAQFhAKEB4yBggAEBYQHjIGCAAQFhAeMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjIGCAAQFhAeMgYIABAWEB4yBggAEBYQHjoFCAAQsQM6AggAOgUIABCDAToCCCZQvAdYtHVgoKABaABwAHgAgAFKiAHGBZIBAjEymAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpeg&sclient=psy-ab
** https://www.google.com/search?...
***https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=1VT8XuqbKtqlytMPn7mEsA4&q=sign+language&oq=%22sign+&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQARgCMgUIABCxAzIFCAAQsQMyBQgAELEDMgUIABCxAzIFCAAQsQMyBQgAELEDMgIIADIFCAAQsQMyBQgAELEDMgUIABCxA1CbFVjiIGC_YWgAcAB4AIABUYgB6QKSAQE2mAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpeg&sclient=psy-ab
**** https://www.txstate.edu/philos...
