Worms

Had lunch today with a particularly favorite uncle and aunt and, among other things, I learned that Darwin spent the last several years of his life in an intense study of earthworms and soil.

He even wrote a book, with the gripping title, The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, With Observations on Their Habits.

I like the thought of this man, this giant who produced one of the most successful theories in the history of science, returning from his travels in the Beagle with his notebooks full of the strange and magnificent animals he had observed to tuck himself happily down again with his earthworms.

After all, there's nothing wrong with getting a bit dirty if it really, really makes you happy.