…on Theo and others like him; NEVER trivial!

A triumvirate of conspirators has occasioned this exposition: Jerry Coyne’s bobcat, Emerson (admittedly both the former and the latter recalled the reflection!) and Theo.

The other day, I had the favourable — and regular! — occasion to be present whilst Theo projected himself effortlessly from the dining room table onto the kitchen work surface (considerably further than a metre) and announced to Gethyn my stupefaction at the seeming (to him!) passivity of Theo’s transition from A to B.

“These are certain amounts of brute light and heat. But is there no intent of an analogy between man’s life and the seasons? And do the seasons gain no grandeur or pathos from that analogy? The instincts of the ant are very unimportant, considered as the ant’s; but the moment a ray of relation is seen to extend from it to man, and the little drudge is seen to be a monitor, a little body with a mighty heart, then all its habits, even that said to be recently observed, that it never sleeps, become sublime.”

~ Emerson, Nature

Theo’s extraordinary feats are consequences of evolution and apart from a preparatory crouch and visually assessing the expanse, Theo’s leaps are as inconsequential to him as standing or sitting are to me; yet, that Theo can impel himself up or crosswise stretches several times his body length is spectacular to me.

Though a thing, in isolation — and to the performer — appears trivial; when it is viewed through the eyes of man, it becomes wondrous.

And now, the video, Jerry’s bobcat; doing the thing that Theo does:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OX9GTi-wQ6I

“Good distance but didn’t stick the landing. 8.5/10.”

~ Jerry Coyne