How do we Ask?

Robert Macfarlane, one of the greatest living nature writers, knows a thing or two about wayfinding. His book, The Old Ways1, traces his journeys on foot across the British Isles, uncovering and following many of the paths that humans have trod under foot for centuries. He later would write:

I’ve come to think that we might best imagine wayfinding not as a skill or art but as an ethic. The abilities that are cultivated in wayfinding—imagining things from different viewpoints, moving the mind backward and forward in time, seeing situations from other perspectives, weighing alternatives subtly against one another before making the best decisions, seeking information from others and giving it freely in return—might be the same abilities that contribute to a resilient, equitable community or polity. If this is wayfinding, then we need it now more than ever.

The ancient Israelite prophet, Jeremiah, seems to have this sort of ethic in mind when he instructs the Israelite people to, “ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies,” (Jereremiah 6:16 NRSVUE). Jeremiah’s instructions in this verse are profoundly timely as they cut across the grain of much of today’s prevailing wisdom. First, the sort of wayfinding that Jeremiah indicates here happens in community, and stands in contrast to our contemporary tendency towards individualism. Second, this sort of wayfinding requires curiosity of us, which cuts against our desires for certainty. And finally, it requires conversation, in contrast to our desires for simplistic ethics of right and wrong and for authoritarian leadership. In the following paragraphs, I will briefly unpack each of these three facets of wayfinding… Continue reading via Substack (Cultivating Communities)