Some species of tortoise can live hundreds of years. Thats astonishing to me. Harriet, a Galápagos tortoise who came under Charles Darwins observation around 3 to 5 years after birth, died in 2006 at the estimated age of 175. Think about that for a second. That animal was born 30 years before the Civil War and died not even 8 years ago. This animal was around before telephones, before factories and industrialization, before cars and planes...she existed through the last major eras of history. She was around for Lincoln, for the Spanish-American War, for the Russian Revolution of 1917, for Hitler, for Vietnam, for Kennedy and the moon landing, for Martin Luther King, Jr., for Iraq and Afghanistan, and everything in between. She was born before the invention of the telephone and she died when phones were small enough to fit in pockets and granted access to every public information source. Think of everything you learned about American history. She was alive for about 80% of all of it. Harriet was born before your great, great grandmother and outlived all of them in between. Thats just insane. And its humbling. It makes you realize how short the human lifespan is, especially compared to her. And shes not even the oldest one. One tortoise is believed to have lived almost 250 years. If reincarnation is real, I would like to come back as a tortoise. That way I can live a long time just doing tortoise things in my shell. And I want laser vision as well so I can protect my habitat from those pesky human bastards always trying to tear it down for their precious paper. Thats the thought of the day.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 03:03:25 +0000
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