Todd Stadler's blog

Recapitulation

So there is, or at least was, this idea that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. According to Wikipedia:

First put forward in 1866 by German zoologist Ernst Haeckel. Haeckel proposed that the embryonal development of an individual organism (its ontogeny) followed the same path as the evolutionary history of its species (its phylogeny).

All well and good. Or, rather, bad, as the theory has, as Wikipedia notes, "been refuted on many fronts." Yes, babies very early on do have a tail (which later turns into the coccyx, one of the better-named bones), but other than some clever drawings on Haeckel's part, it just wasn't true.

But! I have this new theory!

I don't have any obtuse, cleverly rhyming words with which to formulate my theory, but here it is: your daily arc ... ah, recapitulates ... your life's arc. There!

I was thinking about this yesterday morning, when I woke up, silent and squirming. I couldn't see too well (due to the crud in my eyes), and I wasn't given much to speaking — only periodic murmurings. Well, grunts, really.

After squirming around for a bit, I gained the ability to walk (namely, by getting out of bed), if stumblingly. And after some time, I even decided to start talking (though, Julia having gotten up earlier than me and already left the house, my talking was mainly to myself and quite silly).

I played around for a bit (on the computer), but ultimately, it was time to get serious and go off to work. I worked for what seemed like a long time. At the end of the day, with the light getting low, I retired from my earning activity.

Then I came home and mostly sat around and talked. As it got later, I would find myself dozing a lot more. Eventually, weighed down by the events of the day, I went to bed and fell asleep.

So there you go.

In case any of you are wondering why I'm thinking about embryonic development and how my lying in bed, squirming, recapitulates the activities of infants, may I recommend to you this new blog I've started, particularly this entry or this one.

In case any of you are wondering why I've bothered to start a new blog when I can barely bring myself to post on this one once a month or so ... well, that's a fair question. I'll ... uh, I'll get back to you on that one.