The natural order of things

In my twenties I spent a lot of time tripping around this amazing planet. I was considering leaving the world of finance and, as an antedote to the boozy lunches and to the stockmarket ticker in my head, I went to some raw and wild places. Places like Africa, the Amazon, the Galapagos. I count my blessings every day that I've seen such wonder. Those places were like a drink of crystal clear water. Those places awakened me to nature and to a yearning to understand what I was seeing. I wanted to know why the boobies had blue feet, and why the boy and girl boobies wave their blue feet about when they're deciding whether to 'get it on'. Why do boy frigate birds have big red balloons blown up under their throats and then fling their heads back to show their balloons to the girls who fly above, choosing who to shag. And how did that outlandish behaviour even start? And why do zebras like to hang out with wilderbeest but not so much with elephants? I needed to know more; had to have explanations, patterns, boxes to put things in.

So I returned to Australia, gave stockbroking the old heave-ho and enrolled in zoology. Like any mature-age student, I buckled down to take it all in. I learnt some amazing things about natural systems and behavioural evolution. I categorised the wild into family, genus and species. Patterns had names, the world fell into a whole bunch of categories. But one thing that has stayed with me: it's all connected; the world is dynamic - nothing stays the same for long. Change is everywhere, everywhen.

Fast forward to the here and now: I have two kids, a house, dog, cats and chickens. So far from Africa, but still so much the same. I often forget that the laws of nature apply here too. But every now and then I realise that we're all part of it. Of course my kids' behaviour has an evolutionary basis. Of course their play is a way of learning skills they'll use as adults. Of course the dog guards me like a resource and growls at the cats if they come near.

And, the big one, is that in all of nature (and so, of course, my home is not excluded), order tends to chaos. And there's not a bloody thing we can do about it. That concept is helping me cope with the crazy so much better. And like everything, the crazy will change. Probably I'll miss it when they're grown.