23 October 2020 The Learning Year

We're all just life-long learners...

2020 has been one long learning experience.

In March, I learned I’m allergic to octopus bites....

The progression of an octopus bite... Photo: Kathy Ho

In April, I learned that having your friend move in to be your quarantine buddy MIGHT slightly change your living habits...

Quarantine friend? Why yes! I'd LOVE a quarantine friend!

In July, I learned that I’m not that great of a gardener...

Oops...Well, at least the tomatoes tasted good... Photo: Kathy Ho

In September, I learned that it is much cheaper to cut your own filters for your air purifier...

It snowed ash all day and the sky was gray and the temp was hot and our lungs were shot... Photo: Kathy Ho

This month, I learned my hospital is running out of N95 masks, so they are being “reprocessed” and reused...

I really wish people would stop wearing N95 masks to the grocery store... Photo: Kathy Ho

The most significant lesson that I learned during this year is that sacrifice is SO important for the greater good. Every single person has had to forego so many comforts and experiences and hopes, but that certainly doesn’t mean the world has ended. So while I was disappointed that the PolarTREC season and my trip to the Arctic has been postponed, it just means more time to prepare, process, and learn that much more about narwhals.

And I’ve learned the MOST amazing things!!

Did you know that the name narwhal means ‘corpse whale,’ because their mottled grey bodies look like the bloated dead corpses of drowned sailors? Magical!!

And you may know that their tusks are actually teeth... but did you know it’s almost always the upper left canine, and it actually pierces through the narwhal’s upper lip?? And inside their mouth, there are no other teeth! Sometimes a narwhal will also grow a right tusk (and therefore have two), but regardless which side, the tusk always twists to the left! Narwhals basically said: screw it, bilateral symmetry!!

Oh, mighty narwhal. I dub thee King of the Goth whale.

from Narwhal, Unicorn of the Sea by Ben Clanton