Garter snakes know how to do it.

Mariposa Lily seeds do it.

Water knows how to do it, too.

In each case, appearances are deceiving, as an obvious thing is revealed (a stick shape, a dried stalk, and a hole speaking to an unstable hill not worth climbing) and another is hidden behind it (a snake behind the appearance of a stick, a seed-throwing device within a dead stalk, tender seeds behind a veil of dead grass). The cottonwood below hides in plain sight as well.

That’s the trick. Reveal something. Be obvious about it. And open the possibilities for life within the reading errors. Is this not conversation? Or political debate? Is this not messing with our minds? I think we should be careful not to say that human language is the only kind. I think we know this. Mud does.

I think self-awareness, thinking, conversation and intent don’t have to be the same thing. I think that’s really beautiful. Maybe revelation is the consciousness of a sight-biased mammalian predator. Perhaps for others, hiding is consciousness.

Perhaps for them, having options open, and secondary effects, is thought.