Large Fierce Mammal

“Man, a social animal, seeks to live in communities, varying in size from remote single family homesteads, to congested cities made of high rise buildings. Where you live most likely fits somewhere in between – those popularly referred to as “homeless” I will speak to in a future article in this series, for they cannot be excluded. Regardless of size, Human habitations are not an environment apart – they are filters, carefully engineered to ensure that, insofar as possible, the species that built them can limit access to animals of its own kind or those of other kinds it has invited to be there, and to plants that it wishes to grow there. Humans are not alone in this behaviour – Ants, Bees, and other social insects have them too.

“But we Humans are not insects, so let’s confine our thinking to the filters that Man builds. Ask the microscopic creatures that live, die, mate, eat and are eaten, in their multitudes, generation after generation between a half millimeter by twenty centimeter crack under your kitchen floor boards how perfect and impermeable that filter is. The Moulds and Mildews that make their presence known whenever circumstances permit. The Silverfish that haunt your plumbing and bookshelves, the carpet beetle under your baseboards, and the Pseudoscorpion that hunts them. The Spiders, Woodlice, Centipedes, and Millipedes that lurk in every dark basement corner – all doing their jobs as Nature intended them to do, within the ecosystem you call your dwelling, and that you share with them. The Way of the Wild plays out around you at every moment. My office is an annexed bedroom on the second floor of my house. As I type these words to you, I’m sharing it with Mrs. LFM, our six dogs, and undoubtedly a presently unseen and rarely glimpsed legion of other fellow creatures, each doing its own business as we do ours, none doing us harm, and each in accordance with its nature.” ~ Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – That First Step on The Path (2012}

Tonight’s Dark Sentiment beautifully illustrates the point I was making when I wrote the article partially quoted above. Another product of the Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques (ESMA), Mycelium is described as a strange journey that, “… takes us to an unknown land where life is transformed with ferocity and elegance.”

That it does. Whatever you pour to enjoy with this tonight, raise your glass to all the fellow things whose gonads and strife made that alcohol possible.