I came across it again the other day: birds have a greater range of sight than we humans; the wavelengths they can detect are so much wider than ours.
Of course, the implication is that we poor humans are so badly adapted to the world. Dogs have a keener sense of smell, animals as a rule have a better range of hearing, sensory awareness is much keener.
We are such poor forked creatures.
And so:
breakfasting a while ago, our bantam hen came asking for food. We gave cooled porridge on a plate.
Porrage on a white plate.
She could not see it. Nor could her sense of smell guide her. and this was in normal daylight.
Take twilight, putting birds to bed – they cannot see a thing by then. We can see quite well, but they, no.
Owls, of course, are the exception. But in bright daylight? No.
We can.
So then:
That we are so badly adapted to the world… so we construct artificial worlds to live in: cities, urban environments.
But we cannot live in those, either. They quickly turn into congested, stinking chaos.
And so:
Our problem is, and this is particularly noticeable in politics, and philosophies, is that what we imagine, conceive, for and of ourselves, is so many times less than what we are.
We have never made anything commensurate with our natures.
We always think, mentate, whether solely or in group-making, so much less than ourselves.
Only the arts, I would suggest
– well, I would wouldn’t I, since I know so little of higher mathematics, theoretical sciences –
to be released from the constraints of utility and social conforms… that only the reaching out and conceiving of something other, greater, than this image of us –
I guess I am arguing against the current fad of ’embodied’ discourse –
that to reach out
beyond what we know….
I happened to catch sight of a rescued pigeon – road casualty, now restored to health again – a male, and isolated because he is dominant and fights everyone else… he lives happily within sight of the others…
he was in his nest box and burbling away to himself, and doing his ‘dance’, and it struck me: there is imagining going on there, and play.
Remarkable.
There is so much more than we give credit for.
So, so much, more.
michael9murray 