On the surface a horizon Casts sly glances your way; The same in every direction Receding at your touch Like magnetic forces And perfect points. Water knows this shape Wanting to conserve itself Time and space balanced In that momentary fall When gravity insists And Earth prevails. Funny little mathematics Sets the rules in motion and travels a line infinite yet bound; Symbols like notes In the music Of the mind.
Month: September 2021
Inchworm and the Mouse(pad).
While working on this writing, I was forced to change the subject by the arrival of a small but noticeable guest. A tiny inchworm, much smaller than an inch, had entered the human realm of keyboard and mousepad.
How the little being arrived into my world I can only guess. Maybe I brushed past a leaf on my daily walk and he hitched a ride, or perhaps on the silken strands they spin to escape predators. Feather light and nearly invisible, I can only imagine where the inchworm fits on the food chain.
These little guys are determined yet cautious, testing the next step with their front legs whilst anchored to safety with their back. They instinctively sway back and forth because this strategy maximizes their chances of finding the next step.
The inchworm is not a worm at all but a caterpillar of the family Geometridae. In other countries the inchworm is called a spanworm, which I find quite cool as names go. After spending most of its life finding and eating leaves the Geometrid caterpillar morphs into the Geometrid moth. Worldwide there is an astonishing 35000 species of Geometers. They must be doing something right.
But what to do about my tiny not-yet-a-moth intruder? I want to take him back to his world, yet he will not go upon my finger sensing something large and strange. I finally coax him onto a piece of paper and bring him to the front hedge. I place him on a leaf and wish him the best. It’s a hard world out there little geometer guy.
Did this encounter have any meaning in the larger context? It seems so introspective that I wonder why I have taken the time to record it. I guess it’s because life on the planet is so complex — as is our relation to it Would I have taken equal time and care to capture a cockroach and place it back in its habitat? Very likely not as we humans see roaches in some way as competitors to our way of life; pests to be eliminated.
But the fragile inchworm is merely a fellow traveler along the ribbon of time and space. Our forbearance calls out in the wind and is answered.
Oubliette.
“Oubliette” is a French term derived from the verb “Oublier” which literally translates to “to forget”. The term describes a dungeon with an opening only at the top. The victim, once thrown into the oubliette, was considered forgotten by the outside world and remained so presumably forever.
That seems like such a direct method of handling ones enemies: toss ’em in a hole and forget ’em. As a child I had my own version of this although mine was more horizontal in nature. My brothers and I practiced the extraordinarily stupid ideas of “dare” and “double-dare”, ostensibly as a way of establishing a masculine pecking order or some weird bravery index.
Once, after a heavy rain, we were out wandering the wet and soggy Maryland countryside looking for mischief or other marginal adventures. We noticed a culvert under the road which was partially filled with rushing water and we thought it would be fun to crawl through this small tunnel and emerge wet on the other side of the road. Ah, the simple joys of youth.
it was a short journey of around 20 meters and of course I, the youngest, was the last go. At about the halfway point I noticed the light at the end getting smaller and smaller rather than larger and larger as I crawled toward it. My brothers thought it would be the coolest thing ever to block the far side and have the rushing water back up in the tunnel with me inside! As the water rose and the darkness closed in menacingly I assumed that this was basically it, game over — a forgotten boy under a road. They eventually pulled the blockage aside and the water gushed out carrying me along. I told them I “enjoyed the ride” so they would feel bad at having missed out.
This experience either cured me of claustrophobia or gave it to me, not sure.
Mere and tarn.
I saw this quote the other day…
Jordan Pond is an oligotrophic tarn in Acadia National Park near the town of Bar Harbor, Maine.
And wondered, what the heck is a tarn?
The great and powerful Internet Oracle rose from his cloistered warren and spake to me thusly: “0111000001111010100011111…” oh wait that is his *native* language. <translation begins…>
Another name for a tarn is a corrie loch, from the Scottish Gaelic coire, or “pot,” and loch, “lake.” A tarn is usually found in higher elevations and is clear, cold and relatively deep. A mere on the other hand is a wide shallow lake, like a small sea.
For those of you still interested, an oligotrophic tarn in the quote above refers to a deep water lake with low levels of nutrients like nitrates, iron and phosphate. An oligotroph is an organism that has adapted to live and grow in such environs.
The unpaired word.
Many English words are constructed from various parts like roots, prefixes and suffixes.
For example consider overwhelmed, underwhelmed, reckless, debunk, disgusted, innocent, dismantle, related, unscathed and nonsensical.
These words are called unpaired because the original root word rarely if ever appears alone in common usage. An example is the base word whelm which comes from the Ole English hwielfan meaning to completely submerge in water. The original meaning of whelm was made stronger by adding ‘over’ or ‘under’ in front of it. The use of whelm faded away never to be unfaded. (heh)
I was not aware that such constructions have actual names, but there you have it.
And then to drive you completely mad consider that ravel and unravel mean the same thing, as do fat chance and slim chance.
Attempting to make English sensical will leave you scathed.
whoisfenton 