Magnification serves an important function with regard to the valuing of that which is Essential. It is crucial to determining which baseline will be introduced and when to engage in polystatic prediction. We must keep the cost of heating our home at a low level. It is important that we also maintain a comfortable life in our home. Which is Essential: financial security or comfort? Is it more important to be vigilant about potential threats (be they real or imagined lions) or to be free of stress? We must decide. That which is Essential deserves our attention and our polystatic focus. Furthermore, once we have identified that which is Essential it will become increasingly valuable as a guide to our predictions and actions. We value that which we magnify.
To add more detail to this proposition about magnification and values, I propose that when we study something in detail and with knowledge (magnification), the thing we are studying gains value. I can recount a story of this dynamic occurring in my own life. After my father passed away, I found a very old pocket watch in his dresser. I happened to wind it up and found that it was still able to run. In honor of my father, I replaced my wristwatch with this pocket watch. After about a year, the watch quit running. I took it to a watch repair shop. The gentleman operating this shop examined my watch and declared that it could no longer operate. He warmly and appreciatively stated that my watch: “has worn down after many years of service.”
This knowledgeable and thoughtful craftsman then asked me if I wanted to know more about this watch. I immediately said “yes.” He opened the back of the watch and took me on a brief tour through all of the interlocking gears. The craftsman that paused and shared some very interesting information. He indicated that this watch was manufactured in Sweden and was worn primarily by men who were doing manual labor. At this moment, I realized that this must have been my grandfather’s watch. He had migrated from Sweden to the United States as a young man. The craftsman also opened the back of the watch again and told me more about how the many gears operated in this basic workman’s watch to make it always run on time. With a smile, he noted that accurate time is very important when you are working as a manual laborer on “someone else’s time.”
My grandfather’s watch had been fully appreciated by this kind and wise watch repair man. The watch had increased in value for me. While it no longer ran, I kept the watch close to my heart and placed it in a bell jar that now sits on a bookshelf in my living room. [As is the case for many people, my living room bookshelf serves as an “alter” for displaying that which is Essential for me and my family (Ruesch and Kees, 1969).] The watch represents something Essential in the history of my family. It exemplifies the life values that were brought down to me by my father: working hard, being “on time,” and taking care of that which is important. The lens of magnification served me well.
Others have observed a similar correlation between appreciation and attention (magnification) on the one hand and increased value on the other hand. As David Cooperrider has noted, when Van Gogh appreciated and attended to (painted) a vase of sunflowers, he increased the value of these flowers for everyone. Van Gogh similarly appreciated and brought new value to his friends through his friendship: “Van Gogh did not merely articulate admiration for his friend: He created new values and new ways of seeing the world through the very act of valuing.” (Cooperrider, 1990, p. 123)
