12. The scale of life.

Please visit the The Arts in Focus to obtain information about our 2014 Matopos Calendar - 

an initiative supporting rhino conservation in Zimbabwe.

As I sit in my son’s sailboat on Mtshelele dam in Matopos, a tiny insect reminiscent of a mayfly perches on the clear water amongst the lilies near me. It does not even create the tiniest of ripples on the surface of the water. I watch this little critter for an instant or two before it shoots off into its own vast world. Instinctively I lift my gaze to take in the entire scene around me. I look up at the massive granite rocks on the other side backed up by an almost endless rolling landscape of hills and mountains and once again I am struck by the scale of this place. Go up one more level from this tiny insect fulfilling her life on a tiny part of this relatively small reservoir of water and this little dam becomes as small as my mayfly. Above a fish-eagle calls and I look up at his world spanning an area that would probably make Matopos itself seem limited. At his level my mayfly is insignificant… or is it?

Scale is often a very difficult concept to integrate or grasp when challenged with a large variation of dimensions or distances, heights and depths. Although we see very well in three dimensions, that capacity often gets distorted in complex environments and visual confusion may set in. We easily loose our ability to judge the size of exceptionally large things, such as a vast expanse of dunes, or a massive mountain range… Sometimes I think most people just give up, and focus simply on the surface, because the deeper layers make the world too complex to comprehend. Matopos itself is not nearly as vast as the Kalahari or Namib deserts, or the Drakensberg. In terms of geographical phenomena Matopos is relatively small. But the vast array of dimensional variety one has to deal with in a short period of time or over a very short distance is astounding. This multidimensionality is probably one of the main reasons it has been declared a world heritage site! It’s simply amazing the way the place is put together.

Not only is the scale of the structural components enormous, the scale at which things happens here is immense! From minute, microscopic to massive mountain sized repetitions of the same general theme… There are only so many ways in which granite can be formed and only so many in which it can be eroded, and only so many ways in which it can be stacked or ordered. However, add to this the continuous scale from millimeters to centimeters all the way up to kilometers in pretty much all the combinations possible, then you have many things going on at the same time. And that is only when you contemplate the rocks! Add to this the multitude of insects, other invertebrates, small vertebrates, the amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals from smaller than my little mayfly friend on his patch of lilies all the way to white and black rhinos that you may see from time to time… All of these can be seen in context when you place them into their little boxes on the food chain and tied together by their roles in the complex ecology of the natural world. Add to this the plant life from the lower forms (such as my beloved lichen and mosses, sticking it out in the harshest of environments in this place but contributing massively by pioneering new habitats and painting this enigmatic place with brilliant colors millimeter by millimeter per year) to the grasses and the more advanced plants all the way to the large trees. Some acacias bind life-giving nitrogen while others increase the structural world by supporting eagles’ nests and even the tiny flycatchers and the ever audible babblers. Just like the lichen, but much more noisily, they paint my mind with beautiful colors… All of these are incredibly interconnected and in my mind if you change something here, the effects can be seen elsewhere, if not today or tomorrow then somewhere in the future in the complex interactions that make up this incredible beast. Thus, the structural scale also determines the scale of the dynamics and processes at play here.

Then, as I begin to think that I have a vague hold on the construct of this place - from the tiny organisms that make up a single lichen to the rock they established themselves on to the hill itself, the valley between them and the subsequent valleys - just then in the distance the thunder announces another dimension to this world. I lie in my tent and watch as the immense lightning bolts crash through the rocks and echo in the valleys. I sit up and watch as the world braces itself for the next thunderous attack. I think of my delicate mayfly and I think of my vibrant lichens holding on to those rocks and those rocks holding on to larger ones! We have to keep this place safe, all places like these… from the lichens and the mayflies to the rhinos, the rocks and the little dam all the way up to the lightning, as well as the processes that renders these incredible components a functional system.

Just then a bolt of light floods the plains in glorious light and for a moment I see my world as if in the light of day. For that fleeting moment, like the flash of my own camera, this world is etched into my mind - a still image of my life. The clouds, where the lightning originated, the earth accepting it, exchanging their electric loads and I think of my soil science professor and the nitrogen released by the bolt of energy. I think of the role of the fresh water finding its way into the soil with the vital nutrients it contains. I think of them finding their ways into the stream and into the dam in which we will sail again tomorrow.