As for lava tubes in Hawaiʻi, I would typically leave those to others, but I've done it. They're pretty dark, featureless, and narrow, but sometimes open up to bigger cavities where cultural material is sometimes found. But it can be a lot of worming your way through them. Not my favorite thing.

The wild cave tour in Mammoth Cave is actually pretty fun and interesting, although there's some crawling on your stomach through some tight spaces for a few meters at some points, and they warn the men about a formation they call "circumcision rock." 😱

Ohhh man—I guess I shouldn't regale you with tales of doing archaeology in lava tubes in Hawaiʻi. Or tell you about the time my ex-husband and I did the wild cave tour at Mammoth Cave NP. 😅

😹😹😹

Mdr, j'ai oublié ces expressions. Ben, j'était vraiment comme un lapin autrefois—j'étais allé tellement de plaisir à rencontrer des mecs et à être à la hauteur de la réputation du lapin. 😹😹🤷🏻‍♂️ Mais, je pense pas avoir jamais posé un lapin. 🤔 Maybe.

Mushrooms, usually—they're very good for that.

Glad you enjoyed it, and I agree. Human matters are trivial and fleeing (on a cosmic scale), but the playfulness between man and cat is timeless. I like Montaigne's question—who is playing with whom?—bc I ask myself that same thing all the time. 😹

This reminds me of the ninth century poem "Pangur Bán" written by an Irish monk. Pangur Bán was his white cat. I legit feel connected to this monk across the centuries. Sometimes I think my cat Thibaut (who's also white) and I are the reincarnations of them both. 🤷🏻‍♂️

(As an aside, Sagan touches briefly on psychedelics—which he says he's never tired when he wrote this essay—in the final paragraph.)