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We come in large part ready-made from the factory. We accept that we look like our parents and other blood relatives; we have a harder time with the idea that we also act like them. Dr. Dean Hamer in Living with Our Genes Great crested flycatchers (Myiarchus crinitus) are not great - neither in size or in crest. Their genus name Myiarchus is more apt: from the Greek term for 'ruler of flies." Flycatchers hunt for insects, catching them on the fly, and will build their nests near wasp and bee hives and orchards where lots of pollinating insects are available. Loud and aggressive, they defend their nests and territory in aerial combat, often fighting with males of their own kind. A newly mated pair will spend several weeks building their nest - an elaborate creation of twigs, feathers, leaves, and usually at least one snake skin. When snake skins aren't available, they insert pieces of cellophane or bubble wrap. Creating the nest, the flycatcher wanders, flies, pecks, pulls, jams, tugs, loosens, and squishes before the female settles in for egg laying. This energetic process of "try-this-and-then-try-that" goes on for two weeks or so -noodling around until it's comfortable and protective.
Artists and intellectuals are not the same animal ... Younger artists are seedlings. Their early work resembles thicket and underbrush, even weeds. The halls of academia, with their preference for lofty intellectual theorems, do little to support the life of the forest ... It took more years and more teaching for me to realize that academia harbors a far more subtle and deadly foe to the creative spirit ... To be blunt, most academics know how to take something apart, but not how to assemble it.Julia Cameron in The Artist's Way |
