Page 21 - Dark Matter Women Witnessing

A tracker friend once told me that when a species goes extinct, the last individuals step

into a world that is invisible to us, a parallel reality enfolded in a corner of the space-time

continuum beyond our reach, awaiting the day when it is safe to return. I imagine a

shimmering curtain, a barely discernible ripple in the air. Beyond it there are grizzlies,

great auks, and northern white rhinos, all thriving. There are tribes of Native Peoples

from all over the world, speaking their lost languages. It is comforting to think that so

much beauty and irreplaceable wisdom remain intact somewhere.

It used to be that elephants migrated over thousands of miles in cycles lasting 200 years

or more. The elephants’ long memories made it possible to find water, food, and refuge

along the way and to honor their dead. Unerring navigation over vast distances remains

encoded in their DNA. By the time the elephants had come full circle, many generations

later, the trees their forebears had pulled down had regrown, and countless plants and

animals had been sustained in the interim.

Elephants communicate through infrasonic rumbles and seismic vibrations across

hundreds of square miles. When they stand on the tips of their massive feet, they are

listening. The fatty tissue that cushions their footpads also transmits sound waves to

their brain. With their trunks, they can discern scent particles of one part per 100 million.

They are matriarchal and communal. They mourn their dead, remembering the identity

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