Figure 1 – Alien worlds within our own, #1 – fallen tree. (c) DE Wolf 2021

Other worlds and other realities are all around us. The familiar becomes unfamiliar, at least until you sort out exactly what you are looking at. Such is the case with this photograph that I took this past weekend. It seemed a very alien environment. as if one were on a different planet. Perhaps to the termites and to the blue-green molds that  felled this giant tree it is our world and reality, not theirs, which are alien.

There is, perhaps, an allegory in this image. We have but one planet that we share. But there are so many insular cultures, who appear so alien to one another, and who are so quick to shout “other!”