From Tadpole to Frog

Most of us have wondered at tadpoles ... why do their tails disappear as their legs appear? ... and how does that happen?

Last night I watched a movie suggested by a friend ... "Death by Design," described below.  It focuses on programmed cell death discussing the system of communication among the 50-100 trillion cells in our body.  One major point is that cells don't "just die," they receive a signal to die and have to take an action to set their death in motion.  Well now, this opens up a whole can of worms about who/what/how is doing that signaling ... who or what wrote the program?

And, it isn't just death that is operating on a program.  One segment of the movie talks about the life of a tadpole and the death of the tail cells that happens just as the new growth of leg cells begins.  The tail cells and the leg cells are signaled to start their engines ... one toward death and one toward growth.

One can be totally flummoxed by the beauty, mystery and symmetry of this system. Some sort of intelligence knows that a tail for fast swimming would make the tiny, unprotected tadpole more likely to survive tadpolehood, but in order to survive as a breeding frog, legs would be better.  Talk about intelligent design! (This is not intended to support the telelogical, anti-evolutionary theory of Intelligent Design.  While it would be hard to say that a creative force in the Universe does not exist ... it may look nothing like what we puny humans have designated "God.")

Back to cell death.  One statement in the movie explored the time line of development, saying that it took 3 billion years to develop from a single cell organism to a multi-cell organism.  I get impatient waiting for my tea water to boil, so this idea that it took so long to basically go from 1 to 2 is a little incomprehensible.

Watching the video below helped put that into perspective.  "One" wasn't just one free-floating, ignorant little cell.  The ones that survived were smart enough to find food, survive the conditions of the world around them, form into cooperative (although unconnected) groups and reproduce their little selves.  They developed a "tool kit" that prepared them for the shift to greater complexity.

In case you aren't completely befuddled by the beautiful complexity of life, consider these examples from Wikipedia on "Phenotopsis" (programmed death of organisms):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenoptosis

Mayfly – Adult mayflies have no functional mouth and die from malnutrition.^[2]

Praying mantis – The male praying mantis ejaculates only after being decapitated by the female.^[9]

Tick Adactyllidium – The initial food source of Adactyllidium tick larvae is the body tissues of their mother resulting in her death.^[6]

Squid – Some male squid die immediately after mating. This provides an abundant food source for those predators that would prey on the eggs. ^[10]

Marsupial mice – Males die 2 weeks after reproducing from an overabundance of their own [pheromones].^[6]

Salmon – Die soon after spawning.^[11]

Septic shock – Infection by pathogens often results in death by sepsis. Sepsis, however, is not a result of toxins activated by the pathogen, rather it is directed by the organism itself. Similar to phenoptosis of E. Coli, this is a means to separate dangerously infected individuals from healthy ones. ^[5]

This seems to be enough food for thought on this beautiful morning on the Central Coast of California ... I'm off to see multicelled organisms in action on the beach.


More Info:

Death By Design/The Life and Times of Life and Times  (available from Netflix Instant Queue)

Pierre Golstein (Actor), Polly Matzinger (Actor), Peter Friedman (II) (Director), Jean-François Brunet (Director) | Rated: NR | Format: DVD

Death by Design, a witty, fast-paced documentary by Peter Friedman (working with French researcher Jean-Francois Brunet), concerns an unlikely but fascinating subject: programmed cell death. Taking us deep into the mysteries of cellular biology, Friedman reveals the arcane reasons why some cells suddenly and automatically kill themselves, apparently triggered by signals from surrounding cells. Friedman employs some impressive, microscopic cinematography, but he knows most people are not inclined to look at the building blocks of life even for an hour. So he makes clever, allegorical use of other bits of film--clips of cars driving on the freeway, animation, Busby Berkley musical numbers, Harold Lloyd--to underscore the major points. Wonderfully entertaining and enlightening, Death by Design makes the invisible a thing of kinetic beauty.

Democracy Is Coming to the USA

I don't often post music videos but this one from Leonard Cohen has haunted me for the past few days. As we enter a time of even more active political turmoil, I'd like to remind myself and others that "Democracy is coming to the USA."

 Of course, democracy is already here but it's also still coming.  One hundred years ago neither women not African Americans had the right to vote.  Sixty years ago, "separate but equal" was good enough for our children.  Forty years ago, young women were dying as the result of back-alley abortions.  Yesterday we took a step toward making health care available to the least powerful in our society.

Leonard Cohen, a Canadian, makes a powerful statement and tribute to his adopted country.  There are so many powerful words in this song that I've posted the lyrics below.  And, may we remember these particular words as we enter the political conversation leading up to the election:

and it's here the lonely say 

that the heart has got to open 

in a fundamental way: 

"Democracy"

It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on ...

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Obsession: Inspiration or Sabateur

It's a slow morning here in SLO country.  On the way to walk Missy ... on the way to clean the car ... on the way to organize my photos ... I stopped to read Rob Brezsny's Free Will Astrology ... and fell into a thought.

Here's what Rob says this morning:

What is your most hateable and loveable obsession, Sagitarius?  The compulsion that sometimes sabotages you and sometimes inspires you?  The longing that can either fool you or make you smarter?  Whatever it is, I suspect it's beginning a transformation.   Is there anything you can do to ensure that the changes it undergoes will lead you away from the hateable consequences and closer to the loveable stuff?  I think there's a lot you can do.  For starters:  Do a ritual -- yes an actual ceremony -- in which you affirm your intention that your obsession will forever after serve your highest good and brightest integrity.

This set me to thinking ... what obsession? What both inspires and sabotages me?  I can think of several in each category but one that does both? ... that's tricky.

So on the beach walk ... which was glorious ... it came to me in a surprising flash ... IDEAS!  At first I thought, "that's crazy!" but then realized the truth of the insight.  I love ideas ... mine, yours, anyone's ... I love the purity of potential that comes in every tiny lightbulb package.  I love the mystery of untangling the threads and weaving them into a new pattern.  Ideas definitely inspire me ... but they also sabotage me ... luring me into dead ends, pulling me away from ideas I've already committed to, dangling new possibilities in front of me like bright, shiny toys.

There is a particularly seductive pull of new ideas ... they are always perfect, always fresh and perky, always young.  During the first blush of their very untested innocence, there is a mental high of power and success.  Failure is not an option because reality has not dusted over the shine.  And that's how the door to sabotage opens.  Committing to taking an idea into the world means facing reality, seeing the wrinkles and blemishes up close, learning how to deal with the imperfections, how to polish the idea so that it still shines but with a deeper luster.  

It's during this post-fantasy period when the work is getting hard, that ideas take up their sabotage act.  A new one sashays through the door and purrs, "Look at me.  I'm bright, shiny and perfect. Come play with me."  I have a pattern of following that siren call.

So, if that's the obsession, what's the ritual?  

I have a vase made of glow-in-the-dark glass ... it's really incredible and glows almost all night long.  So I've written out the last three ideas that have come my way on index cards and I'm going to put them into that vase and let that light charge them with the intention of "serving my highest good and brightest integrity."  When I am ready to commit to a new idea, I can pull out those cards and see which one carries the brightest "charge."  And, while I'm working on implementing an idea, if another siren song starts playing, I can write it down on a card and put it into the idea vase until I'm ready to make a commitment to a new project.

So that's the word from the central coast on this Saturday morning.

About this image:  Strawberry Wizard


I think I've been eating too many strawberries!

Holy

Yesterday I went to Cambria, a quaint, artsy beach town about an hour north of here.  When I saw a man working on a huge piece of redwood, I stopped and asked if I could take pictures.  He said yes and we wound up talking about a lot of things including the huge piece he was finishing for a Canadian buyer.  The piece is intended for the entry-way of the house now being built.  One can only imagine what the house must look like.


I was fascinated by the contrast in color from the lightest blond to the deep red with swirls and patterns embedded in both.  The light was just right and I fell into the patterns as I took endless pictures not only of this piece but the many other pieces that were waiting to be worked on.


There are many images that I know will be useful in future collages ... but there is one that I'll never be able to use in a collage.  One that takes my breath away ... some how, some way, it is perfection ... an image that could never be part of something else because it is whole in and of itself.  


I did not take this picture.  It was given to me.  I call it "Holy."

I Want to Be a Mockingbird

I must have birds on my mind this morning … this came on my morning walk.  It has been quite awhile since poetry "just showed up," so I was delighted at its appearance.

I Want to Be a Mockingbird

I want to sing a hundred songs

And learn new songs every day

From the birds around me,

From the cell phones ringing,

From the freight trains rumbling,

From the brooks gurgling.

I want to be a mockingbird.

I want to wake up at three o'clock 

in the middle of the night

and sing so joyously

that everyone around me feels it

and knows that the music of the Universe

swirls around them and invites them

to sing their own songs.

I want to be a mockingbird.

I want to be a mockingbird.

I want to be  … a mockingbird!

About this image:  Autumn

This is part of the Seasons of the Heart series inspired by the Gaultier exhibit at the De Young Museum in San Francisco.  The rest of the series can be see at http://joycewycoff.com.

Life Directions

Yesterday a friend installed my weather vane so the eagle flies.  It's one of the last symbols of my relocation, a multi-layered icon of significance.


Richard studied with a shaman the last few years of his life and the eagle was his totem.  The last house we moved into had this weather vane on the roof so when I left, I took it with me.


I like having something that tells me "what direction the wind is blowing" literally and metaphorically.  Combined with my GPS, which tells me what direction I'm going, this clarity should make decisions in my life become easier.


Animal medicine states:  Eagle medicine is the power of the Great Spirit, the connection to the Divine. It is the ability to live in the realm of spirit, and yet remain connected and balanced within the realm of Earth. Eagle soars and is quick to observe expansiveness within the overall pattern of life. From the heights of the clouds, Eagle is close to the heavens where the Great Spirit dwells.


How perfect is that!  A constant reminder to stay grounded while being able to see all around me and continuing to walk in spirit.

Coyote Universe

Coyote is a trickster whose tricks often leave us baffled and feeling victimized.  But, Coyote is also a teacher so his tricks can lead us into new insights, new ways of responding, new understanding of our selves and the world around us.

The circumstances that yesterday led me to feeling like Charlie Brown was a trick of the Universe.  Literally.  I was in the midst of a rather sensitive email exchange with an old friend when communication stopped.  

We had had issues such as this in the past, so I picked up the Charlie Brown metaphor and ran with it ... or perhaps it would be closer to the truth to say that I laid down and wallowed in the victimhoodness (!) of it.  Rather than pick up the phone and ask what was going on, I became a righteous victim.  I took it personally and that blocked my ability to act with clarity and intent.

It turns out that, due to a technical glitch, my emails were being sent but not received ... which was creating the same Charlie Brown feelings on the other end.  Fortunately, not understanding why the communication had stopped ... and after reading yesterday's blog post ... my friend reached out to ask what was going on.   We still haven't figured out how or why the emails dropped into a black hole when they had been working perfectly, but it almost caused a serious break in a friendship that is important to both of us.

After thinking about this for awhile, it reminds me to turn back once again to The Four Agreements:

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word.
2. Don't Take Anything Personally.
3. Don't Make Assumptions.
4. Always Do Your Best.

I've always struggled with #2 but this incident makes me realize how much work I still have to do on #3.  The good thing that has come out of this is that we are both more confident in our friendship and have agreed to do a reality check before going "Charlie Brown" again.