Adwaita, and our last 250 years.

The death of Adwaita, the 250 year-old tortoise that died at the Calcutta zoo this weekend made me reflect on our history. 'Clive of India's' tortoise dies

Think about it... This old-man tortoise lived for 250 years. TWO hundred and FIFTY bleeding years.

What's happened in the past 250 years? Well... 1756, the year Adwaita was born. (Okay, it's "speculated" that he's 250, and they're going to carbon date his shell, now that he's died, but still... 250 give or take is still bloody old.)

1756. My country (the US) declared it's independence from Britain in 1776. 20 years AFTER this animal was born! Think about how many wars were fought in 250 years, in Britain's history... How many?

This tortoise saw the horse and Calvary charges change to battle wagons, to tanks to jet-fighters. This tortoise saw the end and the beginning of countless countries... Countless inventions... Countless revolutions... The end of slavery, the end of empire... The beginning of a new one. (Sorry, can't help but poke my government a bit in a blog.)

The sad thing, is that if he could've spoken, before dying... What would the old guy say? "You human's and your ultimate stupidity made my life VERY interesting."

May all the gods embrace you, Adwaita, as you take your place in the jungle in the sky... And, all things being strange and metaphysical... May animal's be able to speak, in the after-life... As when I get there I'm going to really enjoy sitting down to a long conversation with you.

Readers... to get back to our "reality" lets just think about this span of time. What good have we, as humans done, to our Earth, our peoples, our fellow beings on this planet? And what evils have we done?

I shudder to think that a tortoise who lived for 250 years could find nothing but contempt for our species, as he watched the world fall down around his ears for the past quarter of a millennia.

On that depressing note readers...

Farewell for today.

-- Tuckmac