Psychology

How To Suspend Judgment Long Enough To See The World As It Truly Is

Magnolia, Unidentified Artist, Bequest of John M. Crawford Jr., 1988

You’d have thought I was judging the Miss Universe Pageant.

As I drove, I took my “job” of appraising front yard magnolia trees seriously. Tall and elegant, magnolias have large, glossy, and evergreen leaves. Their white flowers, the size of dinner plates, unfurl in a slow striptease, as glamorous as a ’30s…