
You’ll have to bear with me here, as my thought process is about as stable as Haiti after the earthquake. Today, I got to drive my brother Ben’s car (Patton, as he likes to call it), a red 1973 Volkswagen Super Beetle. That means, of course, that the car has a manual transmission, and not an automatic, which means learning how to drive a stick. While I was doing this today (and not failing) I realized something…in my mind, at least, sometimes the more complex parts of life are the more enjoyable ones. For example, the car…I found it extremely entertaining to actually have to focus and think about all the different little nuances that come with a car of that kind. I don’t know, maybe it’s because i’m the kind of person who appreciates the little, tiny intricate parts of life, but I actually enjoy doing things the hard way sometimes…if we were to go through our lives just doing what we normally do and never trying new things, and trying to work through complex things, we’d all be big, fat, lazy slobs…(see: the humans in WALL-E) And to me, I just find little complex things like that fascinating…to think that something so complex as all the workings of an automobile can be put into one package and be used so easily by the every day person, just fascinates me…and I think that fascination (albeit not always about cars) is missing from today’s society. For example; look at the history of living creatures on the planet Earth. Over a time period of about a billion years, the Earth has seen countless species and types of plant and animal, and there have always been billions upon trillions of examples of these organisms on Earth at any one time. But for those of you who have taken Biology or AP Bio or are just interested in the inner workings of organisms, you’ll notice that despite there being an almost infinite number of organisms on the planet, they’re all extremely complex beings, even for the simplest of organisms. The fact that there are billions of different types of organisms in the world, and they each have their own unique…blueprint, I guess, is just mind-boggling to me. And then add the fact that most of these organisms interact with, and benefit from, each other? It just makes you stop and realize how large this world really is…I mean, if you look at the planet this way: “Oh, the planet has 7 continents…that’s it? Whoop-de-doo. I could see all of them in about a week.” Then…take a second and think harder about it. Each of those 7 Continents has an *average* of ~27 countries, making 195 countries. Each of those countries has it’s own unique ecosystem, in which there are countless amounts of unique organisms and habitats. And within each of those organisms and habitats, there are countless amounts of smaller life forms, equally complex in their miniscule size.
So…sure. Call me a nerd. Because…I guess I am. And…call me weird. Because I’m definitely weird. But when you’re as bored as I am sometimes, or when you have hard time falling asleep like I do sometimes, these thoughts do tend to pop up once or twice. :P
Well, here’s the first of what’s likely to be many posts here on Tumblr. I have no idea where this blog will go, but…we’ll see. Could be fun!