Tracks of Time

Raccoon Tracks in Cement

Walking on a cemented trail is where we came across these raccoon tracks.  Ricky was either mad at the cement layers for messing with his path, or he wanted to leave his prints behind for me to write about.

As this picture shows, when raccoon walk, they use the whole sole of their foot, heel to toe, the same as we humans walk.  Their front and back foot prints are uniquely different.

Hi, I'm Ricky the Raccoon

Their front paws work like our hands, which lets them take hold of, and open, zippers and purses, remove the laces from shoes, untie knots, turn door knobs, and open jars.  The raccoon, the ape and the dolphin, are the only known creatures to share our human ability to recognize their reflection in a mirror.  They're clever, curious, and intelligent animals.

Human Tracks in Cement

Walking on freshly poured cement has intrigue for humans, too. Guess walking in wet cement is no different than carving initials in a tree trunk or a rock cliff.  We all want to leave behind visible proof that we were here.

My non-concrete way of thinking leads me to wonder if evolution is for real, then why would it stop?  Doesn't it make sense that the human is still evolving into something different than what we are today?  Why do we get so excited when something like autism gets more and more common?  Might it simply be part of the evolutionary process?

I can't help but wonder what the human foot print will look like 50,000 years from now...a million years from now.  What did Adam's foot print look like?  If he didn't have any shoes, then his foot prints should still be in the Garden of Eden, shouldn't they?    

Groucho Marx, the comedian, said this....

 "I don't have a photograph,

 but you can have my footprints.

  They're upstairs in my socks."