Friday, June 21, 2013

there's no place like home





Salamanders are rather straightforward. They’re amphibians, living “two” lives. Born in water much like frogs and as they age live their sodden adult lives in or near water or other damp environ.

And then there are the newts, types of salamanders that have an extra, third developmental stage. Called an eft, the juveniles change colors and live terrestrially. The young larvae are brown-green in color, as are the adults. But the juvenile red efts are orangish with darker red spots outlined in black. But you know how teenagers are, so eager to stand out and be independent.

Perhaps their terrestrial stage is similar to a Vision Quest, were they go to the desert to seek enlightenment—a forty-days, forty-nights sort of thing—although the eft stage can last for years until, realizing in the end, that the damp life is the best life. You are a salamander after all.

As Dorothy Gale learned, “There’s no place like home.” 

It’s a thought.

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