Weaving
“If
everything were linear and predictable, we'd come to a halt. There
would be no creativity or evolution or growth. To live is to weave
constantly between the known and the unknown.”
Laura
Berman Fortgang (The Little Book on Meaning)
Have
you ever sat for a while and watched an ant hill? Ants are one of the
oldest species on earth, dating back 110- to 130-million years. They
started to diversify when flowering plants began to grow on the land,
and now thrive on every land mass except for Antarctica and a few
remote islands. Ant colonies are sometimes called super-organisms
because they appear to operate as a unified whole, working together
to support the community, each ant with its prescribed role. Most
ants are wingless, sterile females referred to as 'workers' or
'soldiers'. There are a few fertile males, drones, and one or two
winged, fertile females per hive called 'queens'. Ants are endlessly
adaptive, social insects with a communication system to rival our
own, and in some ecosystems they make up as much as 15-20% of the
land-animal biomass. They are singularly successful because they are
able to modify habitats, tap resources, defend themselves and solve
complex problems. Ants are fascinating creatures to watch and to read
about.
Here
is what they don't do—create art, write poetry, play music, or
dance ballets. You will never see a colony of worker-ants marching in
a line with tiny picket signs protesting their lot in life. And you
will never see a queen insisting on birth control, or refusing to
allow a suitable drone into her chamber. They hatch, they do their
prescribed job, and they die. Life is predictable; there are no
surprises except when someone dumps pesticide on the mound and they
have to pack up and move ten feet down the line and set up
housekeeping all over again. They are tenacious and cooperative.
For
us, life is rarely predictable or stable, at least not for long. We
are constantly called upon to adapt and to be creative. We change, we
evolve, and we grow. We are not all programmed to get along, nor are
we always cooperative or agreeable. Our friction and curiosity keep us on the cutting edge, though they often upset the stability of our
biomass. Sometimes our individual self-interest precludes our ability
to support the greater good. We have the capacity to be our own
un-doing. We are not ants. Some days, I wish we were.
Life
for humans is a constant dance of uncertainty, of unknowing, and of
wonderment. We weave, as Fortgang says, between the known and the
unknown. It is the dance that nature has prescribed for us. Let us
rejoice and be glad in it.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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