Have you ever held a baby porcupine? And Other Curious Things
Have you ever held a baby porcupine?
No?
Me neither, but for a brief moment, my seven-year-old nephew did. Or at least his imagination allowed him to.
While on a family trip to the mountains, my brother walked through the cabin door, cradling his hands. He proclaimed that he’d found a baby porcupine.
I understood the assignment and peered into his hands with glee. My dad, who, let’s say, likes to be practical, glanced into my brother’s cupped hands, scoffed, and walked away.
But James, James, instantly was intrigued and in love. He looked delighted, asking if he could hold the baby porcupine. Gently, my brother transferred the spiky ball into James’s cupped hands. James then carefully carried the baby into the other room to share with his brother and grandmother, who eventually helped him to discover that he wasn’t holding a baby porcupine but instead a chestnut.
A chestnut!?
He exclaimed, wondering if we were sure that it wasn’t a porcupine because, you see, he carefully pointed, there was a crack down the middle. We assured him it was a chestnut, fallen from a tree; he was somewhat disappointed, but really, isn’t a chestnut as magical as a baby porcupine?
Observing the world around us is a perfect catalyst for curiosity, as it often highlights gaps in knowledge. What do you know about Chestnuts? Myself, not a lot, but the interaction of porcupine vs Chestnut prompted me to do some research.
There was a time when the American Chestnut Tree dominated the forest throughout the east. It was one of the tallest and fastest-growing trees, and both humans and animals benefited from the nutrients provided when eating the nuts and leaves. As Europeans took over the land that Indigenous people inhabited, they saw value in wood from the Chestnut tree as a building material.
In the late 1800s, a blight wiped out most of the Chestnut trees, and they’ve never recovered.
Curiosity is the perfect catalyst for learning.
We become curious when we’re aware of a gap between what we know, don’t, or want to know. A gap that is too large is usually filled with fear and keeps us from taking action. A small enough gap prompts us to do a few Google searches or, even better, look through books to help us learn more and encourage the learning path.
While writing, I also realized I know little about baby porcupines. When do porcupines have babies? Do they have a litter? Is that even what it’s called? A baby porcupine is called a porcupette, according to the Smithsonian. They are born with quills. However, the quills are very soft and look more like fur. Had James known this, he would not have been tricked into thinking that a Chestnut was a baby porcupine.
Sometimes, someone else will work to spark our curiosity, but you can create the spark any time you want by opening a book. Don’t be fooled that just because you’re an adult, you have to read books lacking pictures and filled with chapters, while I love non-fiction books. Paging through picture books or coffee table books is also a fun and playful way to generate questions, learn, and look differently at the world around you.
High in the Tree and Low in the Soil is an excellent book for any season, but especially good during the fall. Read the book and then walk outside and observe how many seeds have already jumped from trees into the soil and which seeds are still clinging to branches.
Another book that is on my reading list is Visible Mending.