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While on runs, I’ve been spotting worms that dangle from the beaks of robins. I would love to follow a robin around and measure the length each of its victims. The 18’ of worms a day stat continues to impress my mind. That’s a lot of worm meat to consume on a daily basis. Images of worm after worm being snatched from the ground play out in my imagination. I see montages of them being vacuumed out of the dirt by seemingly insatiable robins. Each day another bout of murderous mayhem for our earthworm neighbors.
Google tells me that these segmented creatures also go by the name angleworms. Of this name, I knew not. Google also shares their scientific classifications with me, which leaves me wondering what it’d be like to know the Latin names for all lifeforms; how different would life feel were I to use that nomenclature rather than our common terms? Quicker would be my ability to connect shared traits, especially were I to know the identity for each level of classification. I’d know that this creature was one of many species in its genus and/or family, and so on up the categorization scheme.
As it stands now, I can group certain species, such as crows, ravens, jays, magpies, among others, being corvids. But, on the whole, my range of such knowledge is spotty, lackluster actually. So, I can only speculate what a deeper appreciation might invoke, though I have found that as my knowledge of flowers, birds, and other entities increases I become further stunned by the webworks of a truly marvelous world.
Amusingly enough, I can likely speak more in-depth on the topic of board games than biology, though, conversely, the details of ethology or ecology or other studies of the kind interest me more deeply. It’s just that in my daily life it’s either easier to take in facts about games or that I’ve simply molding myself into patterns to absorb such information. I fear though that to celebrate such knowledge possibly resembles pontification more than anything useful.
Oftentimes the act of sharing knowledge can seem to be a boorish activity regardless of the topic. Though, I recognize that this danger lurks even more notably when the subject matter is more arcane or, at least, less interesting to most. Kelly, fortunately, humors me by listening to my explanations of game mechanics, comparing and contrasting their implementation across a range of examples. It’s like literature, where you have innovators and masters of various forms. I like to think that I convey these concepts in creative, engaging ways, but I should accept the reality that she’s humoring me, at least to some appreciable degree. And, it’s true, I do appreciate her patience.