March 4, 2013 (Monday)
“What a wonderful world”―Sung by Louis Armstrong
I recently reviewed a program about crows. It’s on PBS and is an episode of the series entitled, “Nature.” You can watch the program on your computer, if you like. I saw it on the local PBS television station. Title: “A Murder of Crows.”
According to the program, crows are very intelligent animals and are worthy of further study. So many interesting facts were brought out in the show that it is difficult to decide which is the most fascinating, but the one that sticks in my mind is their behavior when one of the flock dies. They gather in the trees in the area and become completely silent for a period of time, almost as if they are attending a funeral service. After a while, they fly away, without ever making a sound.
This is only one fact that makes them interesting. There are many, many more. If you have not seen the program, it would be worth your time to do so.
I saw a headline as I browsed recently that caught my eye. It said there are indications of more species of life as yet undiscovered than the number now known (5 million to 15 million). We live in a world of wonders.
I had a world globe on my desk as I grew up. But it was not until the present era of space exploration that we earthlings actually have had a photograph of this wondrous “blue marble” in its entirety sitting out there suspended in space. What a view!
As yet, life has not been discovered anywhere else in this vast, vast universe. Earth may be a minor planet in an outside arm of a spiral of stars, but it is a very special place, worthy of our attention and care.