Pine Cones

I found a pine cone similar to this one sitting on the windshield of my car a few weeks ago and immediately palmed it. It is currently sitting on my desk at work, where I periodically pick it up and examine its beauty.

Whether it is the aesthetically pleasing spirals laid out in perfect divine proportion, or the sentimental feelings evoked by the fact that it is a pine cone and therefore reminds me of childhood camping trips with my grandparents, all I know is that it moves me and I enjoy looking at it.

I'm not too shy about admitting that mathematical concepts make my eyes glaze over, but the idea that there is a golden ratio that, if employed by artists or architects, enhances the beauty of an object is very compelling to me. If you want to look at the math, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

The golden ratio is expressed in nature, especially in plants. Look at the way the petals of an open rose form layer after layer of pentagram. Then look at the way branches arise out of trees. Look at my pine cone. Lovely spirals that are so precise, it is fascinating to imagine that the DNA of that tree is coded to express its reproductive capability in such a way. That natural selection favors the tree that can "apply math" to itself and selects against a tree that perhaps puts out abstractions of that design. Going more micro yet, the genome itself arranges its nucleotide bases according to the golden ratio. That is for the tree and for us.

So I have something in common with the pine cone, the tree that made it, the chambers of a nautilus shell, and DaVinci's Vitruvian man. The same power that made the proportions of the bones of my hand made the pine cone that rests in my palm. Meditating on that even for just as long as it took to write this blog entry has already brought my blood pressure down. It takes me out of my own head long enough to allow me to envision myself as part of the grand design. Even if I can't see it from my perspective, I probably fit.

Even if I don't fully comprehend the math, I AM the math. That has to mean something. Maybe if my hand is in yours at some point, it might be as lovely and wondrous as a pine cone to you.