The universe is alive and has fire in it and it’s full of Gods.
Thales of Miletus a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Miletus
in Asia Minor and one of the Seven Sages of Greece.
“This, for me, means our world is far more alive, far more brilliant, luminous and shining, and far more holy than we can know. I’ve found this to be true with every species I’ve met and studied. In all the books that I’ve written the one on octopuses certainly demonstrates this very well because here’s an animal that’s related, of all things, to a clam. This boneless sea animal is separated from us by half a billion years of evolution, yet it has the powers of a superhero. It can change color and shape, squeeze its body through little openings, and taste with its skin. It can squirt ink, inject venom, and untie surgical silk with its suckers and yet it has some of the same cognitive and emotional capacities that we do and maybe a whole bunch we don’t. This is just one species that proves the truth of the theories of Thales of Miletus. Once we recognize the holy brilliance of our world we must then act differently to its demands. We must treat all of the earth’s creatures, those in the seas, those in the skies, and those on the land with not just respect but with reverence, tenderness, compassion, and awe.”
Sy Montgomery, naturalist
and author of The Soul of an Octopus
