In a deserted stretch of the Karadj highway Munis had come face-to-face with unbridled lust, although she knew what lust was before being touched by it. The problem was that she had an unbounded awareness of things, an awareness that instilled undue caution in her, making her fearful that action would lead to ignominy, humiliation. This created in her a desire to be ordinary, average. Yet she did not truly know what it meant to be ordinary. She did not know that it meant not loving an earthworm, not genuflecting at the altar of withered leaves, not standing in prayer at the call of a lark, not climbing a mountain to see the sunrise, not staying awake all night to gaze at the Ursa Major. She did not differentiate between earth and gravel, but she distinguished the earth from the sky. She had not seen the skies of the earth, but she knew there were earths of the sky. She saw herself in an inevitable process of stagnation. She was already partially rotten within.What can I do with this mass of trivial knowledge? she wondered aloud. How can I cut through it?

~ Shahrnush Parsipur

Shahrnush Parsipur Being Ordinary Earthworms Self Awareness Self Consciousness Sunrise Trivial Knowledge Ursa Major

They are near the bottom of the food chain - a meal for fish and birds - while humans eat from the top of the food chain, consuming an astonishing array of what lies on the planet. But eventually, even we become food for the worms. Shakespeare saw this connection, writing in Hamlet, A man may fish with a worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of a fish that hath fed of that worm.

~ Amy Stewart

Amy Stewart Amy Stewart Animal Science Biology Earth Science Earthworms Hamlet William Shakespeare