" " MISS BIODIVERSITY, I SUPPOSE...?!""
di Longino Contoli
(In the PATIL' s "jungle - not - jumble" *)
NEOSTANLEY: Miss Biodiversity ! Are You alive ?!
BIODIVERSITY: Yes, by definition.
N.: But, are You in danger ? Are You dyng ?
B.: Someway, I' m always in danger, but I am always running away...so, it' s
very difficult that a living being could kill me...
N.: Where are You escaping to?
B.: From a level (taxonomic, structural, observational etc.) to another.
N.: How long have you been running away ?
B.: For about one and half billion years... e. g., I passed from Phyla to
classes, to Orders, Families, Genera and species...from macromolecules to
ecosystems...and, now, I am planning to hidden into the mankind and his niche.
N.: So, if Your enemies and supporters are not able to catch You, what do they
meet of You ?
B.: Often, only my masks or my shadow; e. g., I customarily leave my shadow in
the ecotones.
N.: Have You got a family ? Some relatives ?
B.: I have many nominal fathers - the last discovered was F. CESI... -
conversely, I have one true father - Time - and one "big mama" that nobody want
to recognize...
N.: Why ?
B.: Due to the fragmented, disciplinary and hierarchical arrangement of today
science.
N.: Have You got any children ?
B.: When I meet connectance (a very sulky partner !), sometime we give birth to
a baby named complexity.
N.: How are You dressed ?
B.: My suit is very polychrome, like the Harlequin' s one - perhaps, another one
of my old metaphors.
N.: How is people looking for You ?
B.: Often, thanks to monochromatic telescopes or lenses, named indicators and
indices.
N.: How much effective are these devices ?
B.: Not so much, because very often they are used singly; like a diamond, I have
many faces: if You look only at one of them, you cannot very long see my
brightness.
N.: Why they use such a reductive approach ?
B.: Because they want to see of me what they already believe to know.
N.: Do they disregard any others important devices to find You?
B.: The scales.
N.: Which is Your favourite habitat ?
B.: It' s the single, manifold functional ensemble; e. g., about Whittaker'
s...enclosures, I prefer those indicated by the odd more than by the even greek
letters.
N.: Where is Your favourite residence ?
B.: On a sharp cliff, at the edge of an open system and with a beautiful
panorama towards a closed and isolated landscape - nearly like in the Leopardi'
s poem "L' infinito".
N.: Do people know Your usual address ?
B.: Not so well; sometime they look for me at the address of dissimilarity.
N.: Which kind of people are able to meet You ?
B.: A lot of children, many artists and poets and some scientists too...
N.: Actually, how it's possible to see You ?
B.: By forgetting (for a moment, just for a moment !) my name...Like in the case
of flower' s colours or symphony' s notes names.
N.: What are You offering to Your supporters ?
B.: The hope to escape from solitude.
N.: Is this Your only reality ?
B.: Of course not ! But this is no more false than the others, originated by
Your inescapable human limits.
____
*) G. P. PATIL & coll., op. plur. and in verbis.