If you’re at your
keyboard, look to the left of the 1. There is an accent mark. It is the accent
grave. Above it, there is a squiggle. Not surprisingly, somebody has named it,
too. It is called a tilde and is pronounced like, “He’s gonna do that tilde
cows come home.”
You may have seen
tildes doing what they do best. They nap atop letters like n in Spanish,
changing a crisp “na” to a mushy “nya”. If you’ve seen Señor, you’ve seen your
tilde.
I see them other
places. Like our yard.
By the way, does
green sneak up on you? As I’ve been driving around, I’ve noticed my Midwestern
world on the cusp of Spring. The maple in our back yard is an early budder and
has been prepping for this moment since February. Now the red buds are bursting
and they are everywhere. Last week, our patio roof looked like a warning for
measles. Today, maple buds are a spotty carpet on our lawn and driveway.
Chloroplasts all
over the place are chock full of chlorophyll, channeling the energy of sunlight
into chemical energy, converting it through the process of photosynthesis.
Chlorophyll is a changer. It absorbs energy to change carbon dioxide and water
into carbohydrates and oxygen. It turns solar energy to a form that can be
utilized by plants, and by the animals that eat them. It is the foundation of
the food chain.
We don’t see
that. We see green. More and more green. We had to pull the green out of our
closets for St. Patrick’s Day. Now we just open our doors or look out our
windows. Something is definitely happening out there.
But this was
about tildes.
Speaking of the
food chain, we have a bird feeder under the eaves near the end of our garage.
Birds are not fastidious. They make a mess. Enter the squirrels. They pick up
uneaten sunflower seeds. They find nuts. They share space with doves, ducks,
and geese beneath the feeder gleaning enough nutrition to keep them sassy and
happy.
We often see the
squirrels zipping up the tree or a telephone pole or fearlessly balancing on
utility lines or narrow branches. But my favorite view of them is in motion on
the ground. Their tails and bodies are a sinuous curve of motion. Furry brown
tildes flitting, scampering, or running atop active chloroplast factories that
are changing our world from drab to green.
