Christine Baldauf
FS 121
2/6/2012
Nora Bateson’s “Slippery Rigor” was very similar to her film “An Ecology of Mind.” She explains how her father has made a big impact in her life, especially the way she learns and thinks. She mentions Gregory looking at things from many different perspectives. Ways that most people would not think to look at a simple object. We got to experiment with different ways of looking at things in class by going outside and really looking at an object of interest outside. We were not just looking at the object though; we were really observing it in depth and paying closer attention to its details than you normally would not notice. It really opened my eyes to a different way of thinking.
Gregory Bateson had a strong impact on more people than just his daughter. Marilyn Price-Mitchell is also fascinated by Gregory and his way of thinking. In the reading, “Where the Sea Meets the Land,” Price-Mitchell talks about her first encounter with Mr. Bateson. In one of her memories of Gregory, she recalls him saying, “When man lost touch with nature, he lost touch with himself.” The fact that we are nature and that our minds are nature was something else that she got from meeting Bateson.
Something that really had an impact on me personally was in “Where the Sea Meets the Land.” There is a dialogue between Marilyn and Gregory, and Gregory says, “We are simply a part of something much bigger than ourselves. I found my beauty in seeing the patterns that connect us.” Until reading this I never stopped to think about how we really are just a small part of a huge world. But there are connections between us and every aspect that makes up this huge world that we live in.
Baldauf Reflection 1