Ozark Oddments: Walking on water

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Walking on water

We decided to take a walk on the yellow-roped path to the pond....

to see how full it was after recent rains,

and then we wandered off the path and found our way to the run-off from the wet weather spring that has been flowing briskly from the woods behind the house now for several weeks. And in one of the pools that has formed, there were these fellows, water striders....

walking on water.

I've always liked messing about with water and especially watching the bugs and other creatures that make ponds and streams their homes. The wet weather spring is not permanent, so I wonder where this fellow will go when the water stops? In the meantime, I am glad he is on patrol for mosquito larvae.

These amazing insects were created in such a way that they can literally walk on the water by taking advantage of the surface tension. Naturally, that reminded me of the great science fiction short story Surface Tension by James Blish. I have probably read thousands of science fiction short stories in my lifetime, but that is one that stuck in my mind. Many consider it to be one of the best SF short stories ever written. I agree... The basic plot is that humans leave earth and land on this planet where they will not be able to survive, but before they die, they create a microscopic humoid life forms to live under the water. The story is about these creatures constructing an "air ship" to leave the water, and the trouble they have breaking through the surface tension to get out... Go to your library. Find it. Read...

1 comment:

Leenie said...: Water striders (or skippers) are wonderful insects. My kids kept some long enough to see how they move across the water and how they eat. Will have to check out that story now.; 9:01 PM

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Thoughts to ponder

Most of us go through life so absorbed in the cocoon of ourselves that we rarely stop to consider the other. Of course, we think that we do; indeed, we may pride ourselves on our capacity for empathy; we may be considerate and thoughtful in our dealings with others, but how often do we stand before them. so to speak, and experience what it is to be them?--Domenica Macdonald

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, by Alexander McCall
Smith

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Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering -- because you can't take it in all at once. --Audrey Hepburn

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I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all, I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.--Agatha Christie

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Life can be wildly tragic at times, and I've had my share. But whatever happens to you, you have to keep a slightly comic attitude. In the final analysis, you have got not to forget to laugh.--Katharine Hepburn

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One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

"Two people... told me that the word "Christian" would turn people off. I wouldn't mind if to be a Christian were accepted as being the dangerous thing which it is. I wouldn't mind if, when a group of Christians meet for bread and wine, we might well be interrupted and jailed for subversive activities. I wouldn't mind if, once again, we were being thrown to the lions. I do mind, desperately, that the word "Christian" means for so many people smugness, and piosity, and holier-than-thoughness. Who, today, can recognize a Christian because of "how those Christians love one another"?--Madeline L'Engle, "A Circle of Quiet"