Attend a biomimicry workshop

|kīˈmi(ə)rə; kə-|
variant spelling of chimera

ORIGIN late Middle English : via Latin from Greek khimaira ‘she-goat or chimera.’

noun
1 In Greek mythology, Chimera (Greek Χίμαιρα (Chímaira); Latin Chimaera) is a monstrous creature of Lycia in Asia Minor, which was made of the parts of multiple animals. A fire-breathing female monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail.
• any mythical animal with parts taken from various animals.
2 a thing that is hoped or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve : the economic sovereignty you claim to defend is a chimera.
3 Biology an organism containing a mixture of genetically different tissues, formed by processes such as fusion of early embryos, grafting, or mutation : the sheeplike goat chimera.
• a DNA molecule with sequences derived from two or more different organisms, formed by laboratory manipulation.
4 (usu. chimaera) a cartilaginous marine fish with a long tail, an erect spine before the first dorsal fin, and typically a forward projection from the snout. • Subclass Hoplocephali: three families, in particular Chimaeridae. See also rabbitfish , ratfish.

Also used to describe gargoyles. Chimaera and grotesque are similes.

Photo here taken from Wikipedia. Chimera on a red-figure Apulian plate, ca 350-340 BCE (Musée du Louvre).

Aaron sent me this quote from an article Amory wrote about Janine Benyus in Time:

“Biomimicry isn’t biotechnology. Biomimicry learns and emulates how spiders make silk; biotechnology transplants spiders’ silk-making genes into goats, then sorts silk from milk and hopes the genes don’t get loose. Biotechnology is smart kids in an oil depot with matches; biomimicry is wise adults in a rain forest with flashlights. Biotechnology is pure hubris; biomimicry is luminous humility—treating nature as model and mentor, cherished not as a mine to be stripped of its resources but as a teacher.”

I like the phrase luminous humility!

Christian and I have had some great conversations about the balance of intuition and counter-intuition. The first is necessary for bravery in taking risk, but the latter leads to a different kind of discovery. Humility can be luminous. It reveals what is rather than what appears to be.

I picture the reality I perceive as what is seen looking down on a rocky river bank. The surfaces exposed are true and real, but any one can be flipped over to reveal a new microcosim – an unknown underworld.