Fifth Time In Costa Rica, 28

Nothing to report today. The same bird (I think, to me, those Kentucky warblers all look alike, and they all speak with the same cornpone southern accent) was trying to get into the window again during breakfast. I didn´t want him to hurt himself, so I went outside to shoo him away. He came back. I don´t think he´s trying to fight with his reflection, because he seems more interested in flying through the window than in doing battle with an imagined rival. I can only imagine that this bird is curious about what´s on the other side of the glass. Now, this doesn´t exactly square with the ideas around evolutionary biology, which insists that all organisms, including the human ones, are mainly focussed on survival, dominance and reproducing their genes. I´ve always found this a very sad, shallow and limited understanding, not only of our human nature, but of all forms of life. I have already mentioned on these pages that I have no argument with Darwin, and no I don´t believe that God did his big stage act in just seven days (well, in six, he took Saturday off, for a spa treatment.) But I still believe that God did it, not as a master clockmaker as Newton seemed to understand him, but when you think of the Big Bang Theory and all that it entails, then I would propose this alternative idea: God gave birth to the universe, and thus the universe bears in its very and every essence the very stamp of the divine presence, which is to say that God inhabits and fills every single particle and nano-particle and this also includes you and me, Gentle Reader. And for this reason, I have no trouble at all believing that birds and other critters besides us humans, have curiosity, emotions, intelligence, and a capacity for having fun and making games of stuff. I saw three morpho butterflies, the big gorgeous blue ones today, and you know something, Gentle Reader? Their flight looks exactly like laughter. This might be a bit of a stretch, but I wouldn´t be at all surprised if those beautiful, sapphire-winged insects, are really laughing with joyous and carefree abandon for the sheer joy of existence. Or maybe not, but really, why not? I really believe that that dumb little Kentucky warbler with the cornpone southern accent was likely just having a little fun bashing his little beak against the glass. He was probably bored, or maybe he had a spat with his girlfriend, or boyfriend or whoever and just wanted to work off some stress. The intelligence in other species is difficult or impossible to measure accurately for the simple reason that they don´t tell us anything (and, really, why would they want us to know?), and really we can either just guess, or shut down our imaginations and swallow the evolutionary biology take on things. But there is plenty of circumstantial evidence that supports the intelligence and emotional intelligence of other species, and only the most diehard anal retentive evolutionary bioligist would still be inclined to write it all off as projection and anthropomorphizing. Tomorrow is my last day in Monteverde. Wednesday morning I take the bus to Alajuelah where I´ll stay overnight, then early Thursday I fly back to Vancouver. It´s been lovely here but I need to get home. I miss having my old and usual life back and this is always the trade off about travel. I miss the quiet stability of my apartment, where I don´t have to feel vaguely anxious about the comings and goings of multiple strangers; I miss familiar and favourite foods, shopping for them and cooking them. I miss cleaning my own place. I miss my coffee visits with my friends, and I miss my work, and the long walks I take in my city. I miss my familiar computer. I miss my home library. I miss the clean, crisp and salt-tinged northern air of my city. I even miss the CBC (I really must be homesick!) I long to see the early spring in its blooming fullness. I miss the beauty of the ordinary. Mind you, the exotic wonder of a place like Costa Rica is going to be something very familiar and even banal to the people who live here, making Canada and Canadians every bit as exotic to Costa Ricans and their country as they are to Canadians. It is hard to imagine, I know, but even though the beauty of my part of the world is very different from the tropical splendour here in Monteverde, it is still beautiful. They cannot really be compared, it would be like mangoes and blueberries. A big hug to you all from Monteverde.