E.O. Wilson is, in one of my opinions, one of the greatest biological scientist thinkers since Darwin.  His direct research is in sociobiology and ants, but it is his writings on the idea of biophilia that have always drawn me to him most.  Also, he thinks Stephen Jay Gould was a charlatan, and I’ve always loathed Gould for reasons too complex to go into here, so that’s just another check in his column.

Anyway, I have Wilson to thank for reigniting a part of my brain that’s been dormant for the last couple of years; the scientifically minded aspect of myself.  The part of my brain that wants to know the deeper reasons behind why things are the way they are.  I’ve been living on the surface for a while now;  web design does not need thought about why humans invented music, and all thought not conducive to making a living has been jettisoned for the time being.  My wife continues to have difficulty finding a job as a teacher in one of the worst teacher job markets in U.S. history, and so the responsiblity falls to me and my little business to provide.  Thus it has been so for the past three years.  And we manage. But it takes concerted effort.  It takes sacrifices; physical and intellectual ones.

I have hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel; that Sarah will be employed before the next school year and I can once again devote some time to deep thinking on questions that bear no direct relevance to our fiscal stability.  Perhaps to write again.  These words here seem rusty and inadequate.  I feel great strain putting them down.   It’s going to take tremendous effort to overcome the disuse of my writing brain.  And my deep thinking brain.

You might be enraged by Wilson’s need to explain the evolution of the arts as a part of human evolution.  You’d have that in common with Gould.  But go have a read and see what it makes you think.  I’ll be intrigued to hear how you react to it.  Until then, I’ll be daydreaming about cave paintings.

I had a great time in Costa Rica, and I can’t wait to go back. I’ll probably start posting some spring growth photos next if I can make the time to get outdoors and capture some of it.  There are a lot of beautiful tree sexual organs going on out there right now.

This guy looks like a couple of leaves from above, but from below, he’s pure coiled death.

This guy just looks tough, and has this “I’ve seen it all” kinda world-weary expression.  He also looks like he wants to kick my ass for taking his picture.