New Years: Next Steps. Or Wing Flaps. Or…

Naki’o smiles as he wears his prostheses. With them, he can jump, run and swim. Photo credit: REUTERS/Rick Wilking
Naki’o smiles as he wears his prostheses. With them, he can jump, run and swim. Photo credit: REUTERS/Rick Wilking

While it did not quite make it to RESOLUTION stage, I did think for two consecutive minutes at least about some of the trends in my life that I want to continue with greater focus, and those that I want to extinguish, making way for more productive uses of my time.

Somewhere in this mix, during the longest period of blog-neglect since June 2002, was the issue of blogging and the time and focus it takes from all the things that I was not a part of in 2002.

That being as it may, and not for public rumination (I gave that up long ago at Fragments) I have set up more orderly and intentional format for thinking out possible blog posts for the week or weeks ahead.

This morning, I offer a quote that could potentially (and in years past would) twig off in all sorts of fruitful directions. The world remains such a vastly interesting place–an immense world of delight, indeed!

“How do you know but that every bird that cleaves the aerial way is not an immense world of delight closed to your senses five?” So marveled William Blake two centuries before we had the tools to confirm that, at the very least, every dog is a world of delight closed to our limited powers of sensorial perception.

Quote above from Diane Ackerman on the Secret Life of the Senses and the Measure of Our Aliveness Brain Pickings

And out of that, a possible post on “quantum biology” the world of animals that we cannot share and cannot even imagine experiencing: This would truly be a rich field of bio-information to think and write about. Nah.

Birds evolved compass ‘head up display’

How a Dog Actually “Sees” the World Through Smell — Brain Pickings

And regarding the thought world of dogs and their owners, you have to read about this poor pup pictured above who lost his legs as a very small pup after becoming frozen in a puddle. What an amazing will to live and to love, and the latter, strongly in both directions.

Naki’o becomes first dog to receive four prosthetic limbs

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. Interesting about the 4 prosthetic legs for that dog. Obviously, the pet needed them for a good life.

    In most cases, of course, a dog only has one leg amputated (often due to cancer or injury). Dr. Meredith McGrath, our Floyd vet, whom I admire a lot, told me most dogs do just fine on 3 legs, when an amputation is needed. She says folks can waste a lot of money on a prosthetic device and many dogs have trouble adapting to it.

    What’s really interesting? She says it’s often the HUMANS who don’t like the prospect of being seen with a 3-legged dog.
    Note: If I’ve misquoted Dr. McGrath, she can hit me with a rolled-up newspaper.