Bee Time
Mark L. Winston
Lessons From The Hive
Being among bees is a full-body experience—from the low hum of tens of thousands of insects and the pungent smell of honey and beeswax, to the sight of workers flying back and forth between flowers and the hive. The experience of an apiary slows our sense of time, heightens our awareness, and inspires awe. Bee Time presents Winston’s reflections on three decades spent studying these remarkable creatures, and on the lessons they can teach about how humans might better interact with one another and the natural world.
Like us, honeybees represent a pinnacle of animal sociality; how they submerge individual needs into the colony collective provides a lens through which to ponder human societies. Winston explains how bees process information, structure work, and communicate, and shows how corporate boardrooms are using bee societies as a model to improve collaboration. He examines how bees have altered our understanding of agricultural ecosystems, and how urban planners are looking to bees in designing more nature-friendly cities.
The relationship between bees and people has not always been benign. Bee populations are diminishing due to human impact; we can’t afford to ignore what the demise of bees tells us about our own tenuous affiliation with nature. Toxic interactions between pesticides and bee diseases have been particularly harmful, foreshadowing similar harmful effects of pesticides on our health.
There is much to learn from bees in how they respond to these challenges. In sustaining their societies, bees teach us ways to sustain our own.
"Walking into an apiary is intellectually challenging and emotionally rich, sensual and riveting. Time slows down. Focus increase, awareness heightens, all senses captivated. Entering an apiary has its own rhythm and ritual. I slip my pants into my boots, put on my veil, light the smoker to calm the bees, all routine preparations imbued with deeper meaning because they herald the transition from whatever I had been doing into bee mode. Lifting my smoker. I am totally in the present but also connected to memories of friends, fellow beekeepers, and innumerable long days in other apiaries when we shared periods of tedium, hard physical labor, and occasional glimpses of wisdom. These moments of understanding, penetrating the complexity of our usually unfathomable natural world, still take my breath away."
Dialogue — Facilitation — Strategic Planning
