Right now, I have a book titled ‘I Am a Giraffe Anatomist’ sitting in front of me. For days, I’ve just been staring at it on my desk. 📚
I picked up this book at a bookstore, drawn by a memory of seeing a giraffe running gracefully across the plains at the San Francisco Zoo on a rainy day years ago. That scene is forever etched in my mind; I can still picture it when I close my eyes. Until then, I’d never seen a giraffe run in real life. I might have caught glimpses on TV, but none left a lasting impression. However, the giraffe I saw that day, with its head held high as it elegantly ran, was pure wonder. Unlike its busy-moving body below, its neck was serenely still, as if it housed just a single bone. 🦒✨
According to the book’s cover, the author, Gunji Megu, spent 10 years dissecting over 30 giraffes, eventually discovering that the first thoracic vertebra functions as the ‘eighth cervical vertebra.’ This might be a groundbreaking revelation for zoologists, but as a layperson, I’m unsure if it’s worth a decade of dedication (sorry!). Of course, there might be more discoveries, and I hope she found small joys in other hobbies too. 😊
It’s not just her; others like Niels Bohr, who spent countless hours on unproven atomic structure theories, and Grigori Perelman, who eventually proved the Poincaré conjecture, come to mind. Humanity, as part of the primate family, has continued living similar lives, piecing together puzzles that sometimes form a masterpiece or sometimes leave a few pieces leftover. You can never know beforehand. We just prepare diligently. It makes you appreciate the human spirit. Everyone deserves a heartfelt ‘well done’ for their efforts. 🤗
Anyway, the reason I’m hesitant to delve into this book is the fear that once I finish, the elegance of a giraffe running with its head held high will just be reduced to ‘because of the first thoracic vertebra acting like the eighth cervical vertebra.’ Some marvels are just perfect as they are. Of course, I’m also a bit lazy to read it… 😅
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