The Vision Thing: Addenda

A bit of a correction is in order; the branched tentacles I showed in the second sea cucumber picture are indeed feeding structures: the respiratory tree is actually a completely internal structure. It's still connected to its anus though.


The structure(s) outlined in pink are the respiratory trees in this holothuroidean.

In reponse to Naomi's earlier comment I some agree and disagree; to me, vision is more than simple imagination; it's passion, focus, drive, and even a bit of madness. It's a belief in an idea of how things should that is so strong that someone is willing to push himself and even the ones he or she loves to their absolute breaking point in order to see them through.

And admittedly, a lot of people don't have that. I think the primary reason for that is that we are centered in a society so completely divorced from our environment that we are from the beginning of our lives rendered incapable of developing any awareness of what exists around us, for those who do feel that awareness, it needs to be grown, fostered, and cultivated within the context and confines of a culture that is openly hostile to such thinking.

But I think she's right in that there is a price to trying to realize a vision before its due in society. The sad reality however, is that the biodiversity crisis cannot wait for society to reach the point where it acheives its much sought-after environmental epiphany: it demands immediate, decisive action, regardless of what human society deems appropriate.