Muted Lenses

The two readings I enjoyed most from the Essay Packet this week are: "Mute Dancers: How to Watch a Hummingbird" and "Lenses".  Both reflect on death in small things that can symbolize the death of people and the transitory nature of life in general. This can be seen in the first sentence of "Mute Dancers" as it states, "A lot of hummingbirds die in their sleep." It goes on to say that a hummingbird's life is a series of vigorous work throughout the day and a zombie-like sleep during the night. They have to fight to wake up in order to live another day. The author admires them for their speed, their steadfastness, their ability to communicate non-verbally. Their beauty has purpose, but to those who observe it, their beauty is like a miracle meant to be admired. Likewise, a human's life is short and fast. We must pull ourselves out of bed every day to carry on with a new day, no matter the hardships involved. Our lives are beautiful. There is probably purpose in what we do, but we do not have to focus so much on the purpose to admire the beauty.

"Lenses" uses two living organisms as an example of sic transit gloria mundi. Both are viewed through lenses: one through a microscope and the other through binoculars. The first are algae, which she would repetitively watch die by the heat of the lamp. She then looked at swans through the lens of the binoculars. Although the death of the swans are much slower than that of the creatures in the microscope, she knows that they are dying just as the tiny creatures in her lab. While looking through these lenses, she is holding up a lens to her own life and mortality.

These two stories weave nicely together, as they both try to reap the beauty of life. To do so means to live in the moment, to embrace every living thing around you and to enjoy what you do. Sometimes we can discover things about ourselves just by bird-watching. When we see a hummingbird or swan fly, we can share in their freedom, knowing that we share this living world together, part of the same universe where things live for a time and then die. It's best to enjoy it while we are still here.