You can’t be driving if you want to try this. Yes, if the pine cone was located inside a car, you could. But if so, there will be distractions. The radio, passing scenery, interruptions from passengers, sounds in and outside the car. Some benefit will result. What is it? What can be sensed while driving safely… colors, shapes, touch, light, dark, similarities, differences, patterns, textures. Even sounds when a flap is pressed and released can be heard.
The pine cone is a metaphor for small. There is no horizon or broad vista for a pine cone. You hold it and look at it. Grand nature such as mountains, expanses of water, meadows, and forests are important. And, close up contact is too. Moving life always attracts attention. A pine cone doesn’t move. Yet it can. Take a pine cone with closed flaps, put it in a zip lock bag and place it on the dashboard of a car in sunlight. Heat will cause the flaps to open. Then put some water in the bag and close it. The flaps will slowly close. The is science behind this. The flaps have spring-like tissue inside that respond to heat and humidity. Pitch Pine cones have flaps that are held in place by sticky pitch that vaporized when the heat of a fire surrounds them. The seeds twirl down falling on the ash of freshly burned litter. Using a propane torch, you can heat the cone and watch the flaps pop open.
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