Why fingerprints?
Contemporary conditioning shouts, Identity! and they are pressed like badges, considered essential means of outlining, separating one body from the next. As in, mine and mine alone.
And what for?
The first purpose was holding, and the next was touch. These are the grooves that allow a body to feel in stereo. Following certain lines of perception, one can easily lose the sense of having an end.
Then what?
If these lines begat questions, perhaps they also prompted language, to answer with a beginning, once upon a time. We needed a past to explain ourselves, and some shelter from this wild so readily felt when we stretched our hands over any given scene. One story begat the next, but certain questions were never settled, such as: was the wild coming from or into these fingertips? Either answer begs a question–––
?
–––wait, I’ve strayed again. I only meant to wonder over the discovery that koala prints, being easily mistaken for those of humans, will contaminate a crime scene, which raises certain questions I can’t go into now and for which I lack the language to decipher, about what stories these creatures have had to invent to explain this everywhere, here.
***
Inspired by an overheard discussion about koala fingerprints, with details elaborated in an article I found when I got home.
I love the idea of a body feeling in stereo.
Jef, thank you. I love chance discoveries like this phrase. : )
A fascinating post and a very interesting and surprising article too. I’ve never heard of an animal with fingerprints that are the same as humans. Now, I have. You do find some intriguing topics to discuss on your blog, Stacey.
Ellie, thank you. I almost always feel like I never have anything to say, so I am always on the lookout for interesting material to work with. This discovery was a real delight!