How we learn most

We learn most about people through the ear. We learn most about nature through the eye.

The great Jacob Bronowski, from The Visionary Eye. I don't know if this is true. I instinctively feel that it is, but as soon as I acknowledge that feeling my mind runs to thinking about the power of body language and gesture, and the polyphony of the natural world. But then he's not saying we learn everything about people through the ear, but most.

I worked with an actor once who said he was taught that 'speech is secondary'. He worked hard on his physicality, his psychological reasoning, and prided himself on throwing himself into the part. He was a bold, committed actor. He worked tirelessly. But I was surprised to find I didn't learn much about his character.

If I close my eyes on a mountaintop, I hear the wind, the clatter of scree, my own breathing, a distant aircraft, a goat bleating. But then I open my eyes.