Friday, June 18, 2010

Aliens on earth?

I find squids fascinating. And octopus and cuttlefish too. These cephalopods create colour patterns on their skin to camouflage themselves and some squids produce light too. There is no end to the marvels of the deep ocean.



Most of the time our senses are deadened by the rigours of the routine that we fail to grasp the beauty of nature that is available for us to partake, if only we put our mind to it. It is up to us to leave the mundane once a while and explore the wonders of nature – coral reefs, glaciers, deserts, deep sea, bumble bee, humming bird, dolphins, bonobos, birds of paradise, cockatoo, ants, honey bees, bower bird, venus flytrap, sundew plant and such, if only in the virtual world of Internet.

This ‘being in touch’ with Nature would put things in perspective and ensure that the travails and boredom of everyday living would not overwhelm us and leave us drained or bitter.

Richard Dawkins puts it wonderfully in “Unweaving the Rainbow” much better than I can ever hope to.

"There is an anaesthetic of familiarity, a sedative of ordinariness, which dulls the senses and hides the wonder of existence. For those of us not gifted in poetry, it is at least worthwhile from time to time making an effort to shake off the anaesthetic. What is the best way of countering the sluggish habituation brought about by our gradual crawl from babyhood? We can’t actually fly to another planet. But we can recapture that sense of having just tumbled out to life on a new world by looking at our world in unfamiliar ways. It’s tempting to use an easy example like a rose or a butterfly, but let’s go straight for the alien deep end. I remember attending a lecture… by a biologist …………. on octopus …. squids… cuttlefishes. He began by explaining his fascination with these animals. “You see”, he said, “they are the Martians.” Have you ever watched a squid change colour?
"

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Yeah. People only want to indulge in activities where they see some tangible returns for themselves. Monetary mostly.

And exploring the wonders of nature is mostly without such material benefits.

I was thinking today lying in bed about Chandra and his limit and the fact that such objects as black holes really exist in nature.

Extraordinary universe!

Kumar said...

"Recent mysterious happenings makes me wonder- Is there life before death?
p.s. read somewhere

Balu said...

"Most of the time our senses are deadened by the rigours of the routine that we fail to grasp the beauty of nature that is available for us to partake, if only we put our mind to it. It is up to us to leave the mundane once a while and explore the wonders of nature"

Three things I would like to say here

1. "we fail to grasp" Most of the time we use this word "We" modestly meaning "you".

2. Every human has the sense of some aesthetics and enjoy the nature, there are people who don't have chance of seeing the colors of squid, they see the paintings of their child, people do see wonders in pets, plants at home and many more.

3. You had only talked about visual wonders, Once i had been to a place on the foothills of some mountain in tirunelveli, I saw the grass, I removed my shoes and walked barefoot on the wet grass, there were a lot of lime plants, I could feel in my nostrils, took a bunch of tiny flower's petals out of sepals, sucked the nectar.



"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom”
Greek proverb

“Wonder is the basis of worship”
Thomas Carlyle

Geetha said...

@ Balu
1. Actually by 'we' I meant 'I'. No modesty there, just touching base now and then, a kind of shaking out of a reverie.
2. Every human being might have an aesthetic sense... what I meant is, in the business of 'living' we better not forget to 'live'.
3. I agree wholeheartedly. Walking barefoot on the grass ....I love it too.