Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Hello

I notice that the last entry I wrote on the blog was on the 28th. This is just a note to say that I’m still here, but that things are a trifle busy. Nothing untoward, but I also need to wait for my muse to return. In the meantime, here’s an image that resonates with me.
 
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It’s a dead shrew that I found on the path through the woods that I take when walking the dog. Shrews have a short and hectic life in comparison to our own. I wonder what it felt in the brief interlude between being here and not here. I also wonder what my summary will be for my own brief sojurn in the light. 

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6 responses to “Hello”

  1. Brian Avatar
    Brian

    In the year or so that I’ve been coming here, Geoff, that’s the closest you’ve come to seeking answers to the eternal.  What use a summary except to identify ones life beyond our demise?  However, as for the shrew, I doubt he thought very much beyond his next meal or chance at copulation.  I shan’t carry further any comparisons between you and a shrew, dear friend, but admit to curiosity as to what Martin would say ;-).

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  2. Geoff Avatar
    Geoff

    Huh? I am always seeking answers… but don’t hold out much hope of getting them. They are usually only to assuage feelings of ennui anyway… 🙂 That said, I revel in the ability of us humans to be able to think (at least sometimes) beyond our next meal or chance at copulation. As for Martin, he’d just go: "Tsk – it’s Geoff, what do you expect?" 

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  3. Gelert Avatar
    Gelert

    There’s something really profound about this image and I’m not sure why. Maybe its because its a shrew – so rarely seen, such a short life – and cute. It would be interesting to be able to live inside the mind of other beings for a short time – I’m not sure they’d be so very different, certainly a lot less full of bull, more direct, more honest. I guess we are all simply shrews – just hang around longer. Thanks Geoff 

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  4. Geoff Avatar
    Geoff

    Gelert, according to Thomas Nagel (who wrote a famous philosophical paper: What Is It Like To Be A Bat?) it’s probably impossible to experience the life of a shrew in any terms that we would able to understand… 

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  5. L Avatar
    L

    In the US, the dead shrew is called a "mole" The sure mess up my lawn sometimes.

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  6. Geoff Avatar
    Geoff

    Hi, bones3. Nope, that is not a mole (a member of the family Talpidae), it is really a shrew (a member of the family Soricidae). While there are some members of the shrew family that live permanently underground, this one certainly didn’t. It forages above ground for insects and grubs.

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