We once thought the world was flat, that malaria was contracted by breathing dirty swamp air. More recently that light could not bend or slow down or that the spaces between the planets, stars, etc was a mere empty space, or that Columbus or the Vikings were the first non-aboriginal to land on American shores. How wrong we were yet we took to heart the knowledge proposed to us by those who were qualified to make such statements. More importantly we chose not to question those who were experts in their fields.

Knowledge, or more to the point information, forms the basis for our life experience. It allows us to choose our experience of right and wrong, pleasure and discomfort or many other attitudes. Some things we do not question, either because certain things don't matter to us, we don't have the time, or we feel that we are not qualified to do so. Don't fix what is not broken.

Despite all this,great shifts in our perception of the world that surrounds us and indeed of the bodies which we occupy, have occurred within the last 20 years. Many things that we took to be fact have actually been turned around so that we may view a very different reality. This information age could be likened to a second renaissance.

You might ask yourself "What the heck has all this to do with Bonsai?" A lot actually. When I first started with bonsai I researched as much information as possible and hunted down as many practitioners as I could to soak up their knowledge. Needless to say that along with all this priceless information many contradictions became apparent. Once again I found different experiences sometimes created the same desired results. Then proceeded to find out as much as I could about the physiology of trees and how and why they work as they do. Over the proceeding years I have had some lovely results and some truly memorable disasters.

I am no expert and I know that I never will be because every new experience brings about new learning and with that new endeavors. So the cycle continues, this is where the fun lies.
How many times when one speaks to someone on a subject in which we seem to have more knowledge does the other person apologize for being a novice? This in a way is a reflection of our attitude towards the process of life. Maybe this is something which we should endeavor to change.

Being new at something is a very special place for one to be and not something to apologize for because it is at this point that we stand on the verge of limitless opportunity. The opportunity to have many pleasurable moments, expand our learning and experience . But most importantly arrive at new knowledge that can be of benefit to us all if we so choose. This is the way that we discover that the earth is not flat, see a different reality within the contradiction and from this move on.

Some things are obvious. If one plants a tree in concrete it will die, deny it light and the same result is achieved. But what about some of the other Bonsai Commandments we uphold. Never feed a tree that has been repotted. I used to follow this before but then I thought to myself that when I am sick I take vitamins and minerals to help my body to heal itself to a speedier recovery. We know that Potassium and phosphate aid root growth and supplement the trees own immune system. (We must also consider that to date we know virtually little about how this system actually works.) I began to feed repotted trees with P and K with no adverse results. Whether or not this helped the plant I do not know, but more importantly it did not kill the tree or damage it as popular belief would have it. I withheld nitrogen so that it was not suddenly coaxed into putting a lot of energy into its leaves. Conversely I would never redline a newly built motor, too much fuel at this stage equals too much damage.

I am not saying here that a newly repotted Bonsai is akin to a freshly overhauled motor. But instead that the approach, though engine and tree are different, is the same. The application of knowledge, research, common sense and the willingness to question, then put this whole mixture into practice, can produce some good results. It can also produce some tragedies. Many of the strictures that we follow are based on the premise that those who teach us have done all their research, asked the correct questions and not taken the first thing that makes sense, or works, as gospel. Much of what we know is passed down from others and we say yes to that because we assume they know better. Or that because we are novices we don't have the right to think in another direction. Despite what we know, or think we know,we are all in many ways still novices in what we do because knowledge and experience has no limit. We only limit ourselves when we think we have nothing left to learn.

Friends, I am not advocating Bonsai anarchy here, or anarchy of any other type for that matter. Nor am I knocking our knowledge because to do so would be to say that I know better. I know that I do not. Bonsai is an art form and as such is an expression of self. Through it we mirror ourselves through our creations, our expectations and our experiences of it. One might not think that one has the perfect tree but the very labour of trying to achieve this perfection is perfection in itself. We all know that the perception of this perfection is relative to the viewer. What I am saying is that from time to time we should question and not be afraid to do so. Even though our trees are a life form unto themselves we should ask ourselves as to what they are teaching us. Thus in turn what we are learning. As in life they give us pleasure and some pain. But more importantly they can be a manifestation of who we are at a particular point in time. How much of them and therefore ourselves do we take for granted. How much do we really know about them, about how they work then ask that of ourselves. How much of our experience of them is based on what we really feel and really know. Not based on what we are told to expect or expected to experience. And again ask the same questions of ourselves. Do we lavish the same care upon ourselves as we do our trees, or stand back in wonder and say "wow" with the same sense of awe? We take time out from our busy schedules to care for our trees because we have to otherwise they die. Do we do the same for ourselves? The very act of doing so forces us to. An act of love towards our trees indirectly becomes an act of love towards ourselves. Just like the fact that an engine and a tree are different the thing that brings them together is our attitude.

In the past people have asked me "what do you get out of this bonsai stuff?" I reply with a smile on my face that "I get the chance now and then to learn a little more about myself."