So Pretty!
Isn’t it a wonder we don’t feel flabbergasted at the hidden complexity surrounding us all the time? That we can deal with daily realities with a casual suave without being petrified in awe?
Staring at a flower and exclaiming “So Pretty!” is as banal a moment as it gets. But so many implicit assumptions underlie even such an innocuous everyday expression. So much complexity lies underneath.
To start off, at the most basic level is physics. With modern physics, we know a lot about how light travels, how it reflects, and how it carries information with it. All this complexity surrounds us, making vision (and our existence) possible. But at the same time, this complexity is completely hidden from view. Like the supporting crew for a Shakespeare play, without whom the performance cannot happen but who never make an appearance on the stage. We don’t need to think about them while enjoying the show.
The expression then assumes two different people have reasonably similar visual systems. That when they see a particular object, they have the same internal experience of the colour, texture, and shadows. A reasonable assumption, but still an assumption.
More assumptions lie at the emotional level. Why should a visual image, a dance of energy on our senses, evoke a positive or negative ‘feeling’ at all? Somehow our bodies & our brains have learned to associate the image of vibrant blooming flowers with pleasant sensations. What are ‘feelings’ in the first place? Isn’t it akin to being inebriated, being under the influence of our previous memories, of culture, of evolution itself?
The real reason the expression “So Pretty!” seems to work is because of humans evolving side by side with flowers & trees. Flowers turn into fruits, which serve as food. This knowledge is so fundamental that it has gotten integrated into our genome, our bodies, our brains & our culture. We cannot help experiencing pleasant sensations when we look at a vibrant flower. And evolution has given us highly reliable bodies, so we are reasonably assured of consistency of experience across individuals even though there are trillions of cells involved in this entire phenomenon.
Evolution is the ultimate puppet master whose tune we are all dancing to. “So pretty!” the expression feels like an ode to this fact.
