| Why do living creatures want to move so much? |
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For instance, in the case of the 'human beings' movement to the Magellan Strait', did gods give them any revelation or promise that they would be able to gain more healthful environment or plentiful food in the utterly unknown American Continent beyond the Bering Strait, it might be correct to call a 'land strait' in those periods, than the long-familiar African Continent or Eurasian Continent? People who had lived in the South East Asian islands could understand that they could return to their starting point even in the worst case because it should have been common knowledge that the 'earth is round', however did they prepare for living on by eating fish only everyday unless they could discover inhabitable land without knowing how many days it took for returning? They might have been troubled with the lack of fresh water above all things, however how the 'Polynesians' movement on the oceans was determined justly? In the case of the 'plants' movement by pollen, plants sustaining their life by taking root in earth deeply, might have been good at such performances as fruiting heavily, getting birds to eat fruits and bring seeds far away, or enticing insects into colorful flowers and getting insects to assist hybridizing flowers with distant ones by daubing insects with pollens. However, it also seems to be a kind of 'second guessing. Whoever has plotted out the whole 'master mechanism'? Such 'peculiarity of living creatures towards moving paranoically' has long been coming down to humankind. Young Alexander the Great should have achieved his purpose by pulling down a great enemy before him, the Persian Empire, however he made an expedition as far as the Indus River and easily died of disease on his way back. Genghis Khan of Mongol also became into the expansion of possessions which far surpassed a nomadic social system, although he should have well known that too large possessions would bring few utility to a nomadic society, I think. Even Basho who reached the zenith of the Haiku world through 'Okuno Hosomichi (Deep Path)' was possessed by the idea of 'plotting out Haiku while he was moving' in spite of the glamour of Tohoku (northeastern) district as the object of Haiku. I often think so. It is me who has been writing a blog while I am moving, well, what shall I do? The attached photograph is my favorite 'Polynesian navigation chart' which is made with coconut stem and shell. The shells indicate the connection of Island locations while the coconut stems indicate the directions of ocean waves. |
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（1/2/2006）