order in the chaos

hello, fellow americans. i'm short on words and short on time, so i'm just going to post a picture. of a dragonfly. a blue dasher, if i'm not mistaken. (but please, somebody correct me if i'm wrong. i like to know what i'm talking about...)

this is why i love photographing nature. look at the detail. these things are amazing. i mean, they're cool enough when observed with the naked eye, but when you get in close, you see order in the chaos. seemingly random patterns are actually, upon closer inspection, deliberately organized. take the veins in his wings (or is it a female? is this reverse sexual dimorphism? i don't know too much about dragonflies...). if they were patterned differently, or spaced differently — or not there at all — would the wings still function as effectively? if the eyes weren't so BUGGY, would there be a lot less dragonflies in the world due to the fact that their vision did not allow them to detect the approach of their natural enemies?

and then there are the questions of the other patterns, like that honey-bee, tiger-stripe thing going on with his abdomen. what purpose does that serve? camouflage/protection? identification? or is it the dragonfly equivalent of a six-pack...designed to attract the ladies?

doesn't matter, really. what matters is that it exists at all, these patterns. that they provoke thought; curiosity; wonder...and an awareness of this complex, yet simple thing called nature.