Ani - if you mean me, thanks. If you're addressing Daniel, agreed.

It's a privilege to have earned a small place in this insightful writing. I, too, find the shores of creativity and identity to be among the most fascinating places to wander, even if I am always left with the enormity of the mystery. There seems to be little to complain about if not knowing all the answers means that we have all the freedom in the world to be creative, and if meaning comes from creativity, then there is really nothing impossible, is there?

Now I'm considering how this ties in with my long-term affinity with existentialism: "The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart."

Truth be told, I'm a little lost on this question. There's no greater sensibility to leaving the world than staying, so at the very least, an inclination to survive keeps me going. But if the most we can hope for is to revel in the possibilities of our creative efforts (in your quite useful, broad notion), that's kind of just a dressed-up hedonism...or no?

Only pedantry can save me now... "Artificial" sounds like a pejorative, but if we say "man-made" instead it becomes more neutral and then where's the harm in that? What if we do create our own meaning?

And as for hedonism, it's an extreme. Sadness and happiness, pain and pleasure, they're dualities. I prefer contentment, which is the synthesis of this dichotomy - the ability to exist in either realm.

And now I must go and re-read your fuller response...

Of course, what biologists are finding out about crows these days makes the mythology almost pale by comparison.

As for real-world crows and their biological investigators, I'm completely in the dark. But intrigued. Off to do some research...

Initially when I read this I was appalled by your murderous designs as I assumed it to be a Queen Bee.

When I realised it was Ms. Vespula Vulgaris , I was on your warpath too.

( hello too, I have been really enjoying reading your posts )

Yeah, this was a wasp. It had a nasty attitude.