I grew up an introverted, only child. With my cat or rabbit stretched out beside me, I spent many evenings curled up in some cozy corner, thumbing through animal books. Imagining myself a zoologist, I memorized scientific names and details and copied diagrams of zoological classifications. I tested myself on this information regularly and sometimes made newsletters to share with my uninterested friends.
In college, I vacillated between science and literature. Unable to reconcile the two, I called a truce by majoring in cultural anthropology. Like many truces, this one led to some dissatisfaction on both sides.
- Animal Books from the Past
Writing both narrative nonfiction and some short fiction now, I find the naturalist I once longed to be demanding attention. She inspires similes and metaphors that force me to investigate biological details. She pulls me away from my book on Nepalese culture to ponder eagles, tarantulas, gibbons, and butterflies.
Instead of sending my closet naturalist-self back to the corner, I’ve decided to indulge her. To celebrate the first day of spring, I’m inviting her in for a regular series here: Species of the Week. If blogs had been around then, she would have have loved blogging like the nine year old in Oceans 4ever.
In choosing species, I’ll bring what inspires my work that week. So rather than following a maintained, signposted path into the landscape of biodiversity, I’ll push through the brambles along a faint, meandering deer trail that circles back on itself sometimes. And I’ll skip the encyclopedic accounts; there are plenty of those already. But I will try to honor both sides of my warring self – the poetic and scientific – and see where it takes me.
My inspiration may come from my backyard, my walks or from surfing the net. By May, I’ll be out of the city, settled into a wilder place in Northeastern Oregon. The daily round might bring personal encounters with nuthatches, balsamroot, rattlesnakes, bunchgrass, ticks, and perhaps an occasional cougar.
Check back soon for the first Species of the Week.
