Intimations of Natality?

With apologies to William Wordsworth, a man with a way with words, it's the time of year I'd rather think about natality than mortality. As a scientific term, natality simply means birthrate.  But I have in mind something closer to Hannah Arendt's idea of becoming. We are still becoming as a species.  Linnaeus jumped the gun when he labeled us Homo sapiens (wise) and appointed himself as the "type specimen." Every year, as spring approaches, I love the feeling of waking up from winter sleep.  The first leaves of flowering plants have me staring at the ground as if I could force them to hurry up and bloom. This year it has been difficult to get that feeling. As indicated by the above photo - while the first leaves of our tulips have merged, our snow shovel stands at the ready. We've had several big snow storms in recent weeks (below photo) and expect more.  The tulips will be buried in snow before they bloom.

 This two-foot, overnight blast interrupted my weekly hikes on the Keddie Cascade Trail with my son Greg.  Each time we walked that path I was trying to stare the blooming flowers into appearing, to no avail. Then last weekend I took a drive around American Valley and made many pit stops to crawl around on hands and knees and look for signs of the first wildflowers of the season.

 I finally scored.  On Golden Eagle Avenue, the road out to Feather River College, I spotted my first blooming wildflowers of the spring. The Filaree (above) and Spring Whitlow Grass, AKA Draba, below. I kept staring at the ground intensely, hoping to spot the first Henbit Dead Nettle. No luck, and as of this week, another few inches of snow has delayed spring yet again.  However, On that same aforementioned drive I found quite  few new blooming species and the first invertebrate activity - various bugs and slugs.

 On my way home from that drive, I pulled over to the side of the road to answer a text message. Then, I couldn't resist taking the photo below.  It put me back in the Hannah Arendt territory and her concept of natality (becoming). In the not too distance future, I'll be rejoining the earth in a different form and will definitely be a part of earth's "becoming." When I spotted another vehicle in my rear view mirror, I was reminded of one of Homo sapiens'  unique traits: while we may not yet be wise, we are capable of looking forward and backward simultaneously. There is much pop psychology chatter online about being in the moment, but I rather prefer the idea of looking forward and backward simultaneously.  I love to stretch the time scale orders of magnitude - the supposed age of the universe, and what came before that, the age of our solar system, the earth, our species, me, the latest little cut on my finger, and so on, all of which are still becoming. I like that.

 

 On a lighter note, the new sign on the local mortuary reminded me there is some business I need to take care of.  This in turn reminded me of a little sign I used to have on the wall when I was involved in designed the layout of an animal rights magazine years ago.  It's still on my wall.