0019: Why Don’t Salamanders Sing?
Connecting the Dots
274 words, ~1 minute
Why don’t salamanders sing? Some salamanders make vocalizations when threatened, but screaming and singing aren’t the same thing.
Usually, we sing when we feel safe. We sing to find and connect with others.
Steve Jobs once told the graduating class of Stanford a story about his life. He said, “…you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
Trusting in the future is the essence of adventure. It is how we overcome the risk of the unknown. Looking back is easy. Looking forward is only guessing. We have to trust something, and trusting others is a good sign that we’re ready for whatever adventures are ahead.
What does this have to do with salamanders? Salamanders are delicate little things. They don’t sing like birds or bugle like an elk. They can’t fly away quickly, and they aren’t one of the biggest things in the forest. We don’t hear salamanders sing because it’s too risky.
However, one of the many cool things about salamanders is they are an indicator species. Their sensitivity and interconnectedness as a predator and prey mean that changes in salamander populations can help forecast larger environmental changes. Even though we can’t hear them sing, we should still listen to the salamanders. The loudest voices don’t always have the most to say.
Connection can tell us a lot about where we are going. It might not show us the future, but the more we listen to others and trust that we’re in it together, the better prepared we are for the adventures ahead.
The background rings and the braided salamander are examples of Brunnian Links. If you take out one strand of the braid or break one of the links in the six loops, everything comes apart.
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