Making Connections Assignment: 1

Initially at loss of ideas on how to relate these two pieces of information, I decided to see what I can come up with if I researched on each topic individually first before putting them together.

The poem by Basho on cicadas was actually found on a rather sketchy site, which may be unreliable. However, according to this site, the short haiku given to us to analyze was actually part of a rather lengthy poem. Cicadas, from general knowledge, are known to spend an extremely long time underground before surfacing in hordes, only to die a couple hours later. During these couple hours, frantic mating occurs with choruses akin to a massive celebration. Suddenly, their life is extinguished and is not heard again in this world.

The second piece of information was somewhat of a shock to me at first. I initially thought it was some sort of drain sieve for sinks and the like. Then I realized the name of the picture was at the top of the browser. What a pleasant surprise! Unfortunately, the first result that popped up after searching for it was in Wikipedia, which is a definite no-no. However, that led me to another link: Triceratium robertsianum and Navicula bullata, which the captions provided. Another quick web search led me to an extensive dichotomy table of these species of which the only part I understood was the “Domain: Eukaryota”. Digging deeper, I gleaned that these were algae of sorts, although I didn’t quite understand a lot of the text that was presented.

To state the obvious, these two pieces of information represents three different species in the domain of eukaryotes. However, it can also represent how insignificant we are in this world, yet can make a big difference. Cicadas spend most of their life underground. When they finally emerge, their appearance is short and glorious. They make the most of their short lives above ground by creating jovial music and making themselves seen and heard. The cicadas can represent people in our society who have led mankind as a whole to new levels. They can represent the great scholars and philosophers, Nobel Prize winners, inventors, and genii who helped develop society as it is today.

Similarly, the algae from the pictures can represent the less noticeable but still important people in our society. Their presence is hidden amongst hundreds of others, but each does their part. In a pond, signs of algae mean the water quality is healthy and clean. Likewise the algae can represent each person doing their part in the world to make it a better place: recycling whenever possible, helping others in need, promoting awareness and doing something about conflicts that happen far away. These are all small acts, but necessary in our society. Thus, I believe that is how the two pieces of information are related to each other.

Bibliography

Kinnes, Tormod. "Haiku of Basho." 2007. The Gold Scales. 22 Sep 2008 <http://oaks.nvg.org/basho.html>.

"Triceratium robertsianum." ZipcodeZoo. 28 Aug 2008. BayScience Foundation. 22 Sep 2008 <http://zipcodezoo.com/Chromista/T/Triceratium_robertsianum/#Taxonomy>.