Thing To Do Today: herd something.

The world, the physicists say, is getting ever more chaotic, and in the end (actually, if I understand it aright (which I probably don't) quite a long time before the end) everything will be an infinite soup of...

...well, soup.

They call this entropy. I call it boring. Who wants conformity?

But on the other hand there are times when it does seem as if there's enough chaos in the world. We humans do seem to have an urge to impose order. We collect things and put them in cupboards specially made for the purpose; we decide on one particular side of the road to drive on and (mostly) keep to it; we follow recipes to the nearest pinch of salt.

This must be, I think, a sign of a deep and ancient herding instinct. Most of us no longer have animals about the place, so we herd papers into folders instead of sheep into folds.


So why not try to herd something today. But not people, probably.

Herding people is almost as bad as herding cats.


photo of Aoshima island by 暇・カキコ

Thing To Do Today: herd something. This word comes from the Old English hirde.