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Many thanks for that, on many levels, Fred.
-----Original Message-----
From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [mailto:naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca]
On Behalf Of Fred Schueler
Sent: December-25-13 11:47 AM
To: Eastern Ontario Natural History list-serve; NATURENB@LISTSERV.UNB.CA;
naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
Subject: [NatureNS] seasonal greetings
Everyone,
I was listening the the recent Quirks & Quarks piece on human maladaptation
to certain aspects of modern environments, and when they came around the
myopia that's the result of youthfully staying indoors and paying too close
attention to books, and now to screens, I composed this for the grandson -
Take the young boy out of doors.
show him where the Raven soars.
Teach him to look up in trees
Where Cepaea takes its ease.
He must find the Rock Elm's fruit
in its floppy furry suit.
Let him pick out treetop lichens
as the foggy morning brightens;
Tell the Cottontail from Hares
When tracking snow is scarcely there;
Nab the creaking Rachet Frog
in the grass along the bog,
Know the Great from Lesser Blackbacks
On the Bay of Fundy mudflats,
And where-so-ever he looks
Study nature and write books.
On the basis of experience with this young master of the English vocabulary,
I'd also advise anyone who associates with toddlers to regularly speak to
them in the languages of other species - the origin of the first couplet in
the verse is that his favourite song is "Oh, to be a bright-sky Raven" sung
in Raven, and he was very excited last week when we explained that the
Chickadees would soon be singing 'feebee.' It's said that imitating other
species was one an early Human apomorphies (supposedly to frighten off
nocturnal African predators), which opened up the possibility of speech, and
it's surely important not to restrict what's heard by youngsters to the
limited phonemes of official languages.
For those interested in excessive detail, our annual letter, or perhaps it's
better styled a report to stockholders, is at
http://pinicola.ca/documents/2013_annual.pdf
Wishing everyone a rejuvenating and healthful Sunreturn - and hoping
2014 can be dominated, at all levels of enterprise, by actions based on
conclusions lovingly reasoned out from first principles,
fred.
------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad Bishops Mills Natural
History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills
- http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm Daily Paintings -
http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
------------------------------------------------------------
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