Best
Many years ago, when my collection of plants was small,
I tried to get the best azaleas. I knew that large, red flowers,
completely covering a bush, would be the best. I've chronicled
elsewhere my search for such. I thought I knew what was best.
Maybe I shouldn't have been so dogmatic. The concept of “best”
isn't simple.
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| The BEST landscape view, in my opinion. Tunnel View, Yosemite, May 2009 |
For example:
We're obsessed with celebrating the best. Who, or what,
is the best of maybe thousands. Second best is largely forgotten.
Consider the non-gardening examples in the odd collection below:
a) Pro Football fans will remember many Super Bowl
winners, but struggle when recalling the loser, a team ranking second
that year of 32.
b) How would you compare baseball players Mickey Mantle
and Ken Griffey, Jr.? Mantle had several seasons better than any one
of Griffey's, but personal failings limited his number of years.
Griffey performed at a high level for many years. Performance is
measured by “Wins Above Replacement” (WAR). From 1952 to 1962
Mantle was the best or one of the best. Eleven years. This was
followed by a rapid decline. Ken Griffey, Jr. was a star from about
1990 to 2007, 27 years, never reaching as high as Mantle, but close.
c) Bobby Fischer was the best chess player of his time,
not only based on rating, but also a World Championship. The man he
beat for that title, Boris Spassky, never attained the height of
Fischer's rating, but was still a World Champion and a feared
Grandmaster for many more years than Fischer's brief dominance.
Who's the
best writer? Do you think that Leo Tolstoy or George Orwell had #1 best
sellers?
The best
singer? In both categories, we can list people who have been one-hit-wonders
but had no staying power. Are they better than artists who have never attained
the top standing, despite being “one-of-the-best” for decades? Bruce
Springsteen and “Martha and the Vandellas” reached “only” #2 on Billboard.
There are no
metrics for comparing the best artists, philosophers, politicians, or
eccentrics (sorry, didn't mean to repeat myself). Every period of history has
examples of those unrankable categories, even with a NY Times bestseller list
available, or a Christie's Auction measuring value in dollars.
A transitive
relation says: if A is greater than B, and B is greater than C, then A is
greater than C. Unfortunately,
real life has many non-transitive relationships. Suppose Oklahoma beats Texas
in football. Then Texas beats Ohio State. Logically, Oklahoma is better than
Ohio State. When Ohio State beats Oklahoma, we see that sports, and much of
life, is non-transitive. It happens all the time.
Another example: voting. With candidate A getting
40% of the vote, B getting 35%, and C winning 25%, voters have chosen
A as the winner. But if voters only chose between A and C, then C
would win. How is that possible? Well, one way would be that voters
for B, no longer able to vote for her, choose to back C, who would
get 60% of the vote. Voters for C really don't like A. It
happens all the time.
The mathematical concept of an ordered lattice contains items which can be ranked, but not necessarily compared, as they're on different branches.
Finally back to gardening and azaleas!
Some plants massively cover themselves with flowers,
and are a focal point. Approaching, you realize that each individual
flower is not special in any way.
On the flip side, there are some plants with intricate,
multi-colored flowers that bear slow appreciation. But (you knew
there was a “but” coming) the plant's branches are scraggly and
uninteresting.
Which of the two categories of plants is the “best?”
In my garden, if a new bed could host hosta, ferns, and
heucheras, everything would be fine. If only one type could
appear, then varieties of hosta, which are larger, would be my
choice. But if I could only have one plant there, heucheras
would get my vote. Though small, they are much more colorful and
intricate. Which do I think is best?
Perhaps the concepts of “best,”, “We're Number
One!” and “Champion” need to be retired, living out their lives
on the porch, watching the world happily go by without them.
