Bee Wise

"Get Wisdom - BUT with all your getting, Get Understanding"
This was on a bench in the rose garden of Regent's Park, dedicated to an Edward Sinclair who was described as "in every way a Wise Man."  I realized that I have had a few lessons in getting understanding recently, and I've been so busy in my getting that I nearly missed them. On a visit to Kew Gardens, I had to be politely, yet persistently, prodded to get the point of their new sculpture called The Hive.

There is so much else in the gardens to investigate, gaze at, walk through and photograph, that I almost forgot to visit the sculpture.  I figured I would do a quick walk by on the way out, pausing to take a picture just to say I'd seen it. But the Hive made sure I got its message in several ways.
After wandering inside the enormous metal frame of the bee hive I joined my mother below the glass floor. There I noticed a man restocking a metal pole with small popsicle sticks.  I then followed the instructions on the pole which said to hold the stick between my teeth and the pole while covering my ears. The vibrations created sound which only I could hear, inside my head. Then I understood the sound being piped out through the speakers inside the hive. It was bee music, created by the vibrations of wings, constantly changing in tone, rhythm and volume.
I was approached by another employee who asked me what I thought of the sculpture.  Did I think it was good idea? I had no response, because I really didn't know what the main purpose of the Hive was other than a cool piece of sculpture. She proceeded to tell me that

children could learn a lot here, to which I must have looked back blankly.  "About the bees and pollination!" "Oh, yes, that." I still wasn't sure how a structure of carefully constructed metal could teach about pollination. "You know that there is a real hive connected to this, don't you?"  Then it started to dawn on me that there was much more to this place than a cage wired with sound and lights.  But, of course, I was too proud to admit I really could do with a proper explanation.  I let my guide move on to find someone who was more responsive. I could always look it up later on-line.
Finally, my sister-in-law came to the rescue. She had stood by another guide in order to overhear his explaining to a child the real genius behind the Hive.  He explained how the real hive of bees, kept out of the public's reach, had been wired with sensors in order to detect the bees' activity. Using technology, this activity was transmitted to the man-made hive in the form of sound and light. The sound reflected the intensity of the vibrating wings, and the lights showed where and how the bees moved. So lights lit up in different locations and in different colors all around the inside of the Hive giving a truly natural, yet synthetic, experience of the inside of an active bee hive.

 It took one knowledgeable person to explain that to a child, knowing that they would be overheard by adults too proud to ask; then for one of those adults to pass along that information to me.  Maybe that is what "all that getting of  wisdom" means. You listen, experience and reflect.... listen some more, repeat, and finally it sinks in.