Adaptation
“You are
capable of so much more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right
for you, and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high.
Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure
failure. Persist. The world needs all you can give.”
E.O.
Wilson
This quote from E.O.
Wilson sounds like an excerpt from a graduation address. His advice
is both broad and succinct. Dr. Wilson is the world's authority on
ants, has written numerous books, won a long list of prizes including
two Pulitzer Prizes for non-fiction, and was born right here in
Birmingham, AL. He is an American biologist and naturalist, who
loved the outdoors from an early age. Due to an eye injury sustained
in a fishing accident when he was still in elementary school, he did
not have stereo vision, but did have 20/10 vision in his good eye.
That meant he could see small things very well—even the hair on
insects. His passion became butterflies and ants, and he occupied an
endowed chair in entomology at Harvard for decades. He is one of the
many people who took a disability and turned it into an advantage.
His advice to graduates is from having lived what he spoke.
Wilson also said this: “Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive,
and even spiritual satisfaction.” His published works include
studies in biodiversity of insects and of human beings. Biodiversity
is key to survival, and adaptation is equally essential. When a
species is unwilling or unable to accomplish these two necessary
changes—think Neanderthal here—it does not survive. And that
includes us. We must be willing to change, to allow ourselves to
advance and evolve intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. We
must be willing to adapt to changes in demographics, and to effect
the necessary environmental safeguards, or we simply will not
continue as a species.
We have such wisdom in
this world—not just intelligence, but wisdom. If we allow it to
guide us, we will thrive. But, should we allow self-interest and
greed to be our primary motivators, we will fail the test of
longevity. People like E.O. Wilson have spent a lifetime—he is now
89 years old—looking at how species adapt and survive. We may want
to listen to him and others like him. My prayer is that 2019 will be
the year we begin to take this seriously. The world needs all we can
give it.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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