Talkin' Bout the Birds and the Polychaete Worms
a.k.a. Seagrass, Pride Month, and Why I Pine for Sappy Alien Love Songs
Hi Folks!
As I get started this week, I just wanted to say thank you to people who have subscribed to my newsletter!
I began writing this newsletter because I really like being part of this world, and when I like something, I want to share it. Yes, I write novels and books, but many months and years go into creating a book that I feel proud to bring to readers.
In the meantime, between these finished products, sometimes I just want to chat about things I enjoy, that I find magical and fun. But when I write, and maybe even share something that y'all might find funny or useful or insightful, I feel some connection, and
and, well, I hope you are enjoying what we're doing here so far. I know I am enjoying you reading!
Thank you!
Ryka
✨🐝🌼🦐✨
This Monday, I am going to be chatting with some other folks from Meta Bulletin about Pride Month and what it means to be a queer writer not just in this happy newsletter, but bopping around in the world.
"Celebrate Pride with me! I’ll be joining my fellow Bulletin writers @andrewgibby, @ericcervini, @gerrickkennedy, @gregmania, @oureric, and @rykaaoki for a special Pride-themed Live on @Creators. Tune in Monday at 1pm PST/4pm EST!"
Queerness aside, I think all of us have felt like outsiders or oddballs or misfits in the world. Does anyone blend in with everyone all the time?
I feel this way quite often. Sometimes being a misfit can lead to good things, but it can also be isolating—during this pandemic even moreso.
But then, maybe a friend or somebody will call me up and we'll chat, and I learn some cool fact or perspective and suddenly I feel reconnected with the world.
As much as we like the new and alien, I believe this world what makes the magical, is not only the bizarre, but the bizarrely familiar—when we discover kinships and relations that we never thought were there.
As incredible as completely alien life might be—in some ways, wouldn’t it be even more incredible if we had enough in common with said life forms that we might actually converse and talk—and even share experiences?
Imagine finding a species of aliens and realize they also had sappy love songs!
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This week, I learned about seagrass—and you might have, too.
I think I had a vague awareness that a plant like seagrass existed, but it was in reading and hearing about a colony of seagrass in Shark Bay, Australia that my vague awareness was brought into focus.
The Shark Bay colony covers an area of 77 square miles, and is actually a single entity, connected by a rich net of rhizomes. This makes it the largest living organism on the planet. It’s also one of the oldest, as scientists estimate the colony to be about 4500 years old.
This organism seems unreal… so much so that Anton Petrov, the “Hello Wonderful Person” guy who usually talks about black holes and galaxies and stuff, did a video on the colony.
As Anton was saying, this is actually a massive colony of asexually reproduced clones—which makes this even more nonhuman, and maybe somewhat threatening, like armies of identical Mandalorians in Star Wars.
However, as I learned more about seagrasses, I found seagrass details that were only touched upon in the initial videos and articles—that were even more interesting and wonderful than its age or size.
And what made them interesting and wonderful was not the extreme and alien, but the familiar, even the normal.
Like flowers!
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Seagrasses are the only plants that bloom in undersea environments. These are not flower lookalikes, which are really hungry corals or anemones at the filter-feeding buffet—these are actual flowers growing under the sea!
Seagrasses are angiosperms—which means they have fruits and seeds and vascular leaves. They are the only angiosperms that live under the sea. Which makes sense; I shudder to think what would happen if I watered any garden variety flowers with seawater.
Now, imagine this: you are a plant with flowers with seeds and fruits and pollen—and you’re in the freaking ocean.
What are you going to do about pollination? Wait for the bees?
When I think of flowers, I automatically think of pollinators, mostly of bees, along with wasps and flies and moths. But the oceans are particularly inhospitable to insects. Only a handful of them inhabit intertidal areas—and no adult insect lives underwater.
If course, the wind is also an effective pollinator, and tides and waves are basically underwater wind, and so, with seagrasses, marine biologists have assumed that much of the pollination is through the action of sea currents.
However, within recent studies have shown that seagrasses are also pollinated by crustaceans such as shrimp and isopods and copepods along with polychaete worms. These creatures browse through the pollen, possibly for the gel that the pollen is encased in (nectar would just get washed away).
And as they go from male blossom to female blossom?
Seagrasses are part an entire ecosystem that evolved alongside its land-based cousins. Study this and realize that the life strategies that we’ve evolved on our little planet are pretty magnificent, aren’t they?
Go us!
Even if it’s not the birds and the bees, but the birds and the polychaete worms!
But, of course, seagrass had to wait for “World’s Largest Living Organism” for its headline moment.
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I think during this Pride month, it’s good to remember that many people unfamiliar with the queer community only see us at our most sensationalized.
Often that includes trans people. “Man gets pregnant” or “transgender swimmer” makes easy headlines.
And yes, these are parts of our community, and go us!
However, I would hope that people would listen more closely, read a little more…maybe even expand their circles of friends.
Of course, this analogy is not perfect—it’s one thing to probe seagrass for pollinators, and quite another to invade a pride event and ask questions like, “do you have still have a penis?” or “which one of you is the man?”
We’re people, you’re people, people should respect people. And luckily, because we're people—there is a whole other way to gather information—books.
And Poems and Stories. And Essays and Songs and Videos. Nowadays, even Games.
As an example, Barcart Bookshelf not only introduces you to queer books, but gives you drink recipes to go WITH them! Here Elias Ells is showing how to make a Starrgate Mimosa based off Light From Uncommon Stars!
There are queer writers, trans writers, writers who ran away from your hometown. Some will chat about plumbing and sex—trust me, if pollen play is your thing, you will find all the sex writing you want.
Some will tell stories, romances, histories, fantasies that will change the way you will see the world.
But you will also find stuff about cooking and homesteading and fishing and making jam. You will also find some pretty good relationship advice, and suggestions on great weekend getaways.
You see, like insects in the ocean—not very many traditional families are able to make the journey under the sea.
But in that void, many queer folks have evolved chosen families…and we commiserate and celebrate, and have picnics, and visit each other when we are sick, and even just because.
At the end, the relationships we have are more resilient than even we may know. And maybe if you can’t be a parent to your queer kid, perhaps you can hope they find a good family anyway.
Of course, there's so much more. Just look up “queer authors” or “queer poets” and let Google do its thing.
Yes, you can even use incognito mode.
And from there—what should you choose?
Ha! As if I would tell you!
After all, where would be the discovery in that?
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Next Week: Should Bottom Quarks Taste Like Uranus?
Cover: Vincent Pommeyrol/ Collection:Moment/ Getty Images