Two, Four or Six Limbs - Nighttime Thoughts Shared

I think about strange things as I'm falling asleep. Since it's snowing once again, wings came to mind which led to perception and a long and winding road. To dive into that rabbit hole - as a species, we seem to enjoy and embrace symmetry. We like things balanced. Our creatures of imagination and story usually are either formed like us (four appendages - balanced two and two, arms and legs) or sometimes have an extra set, usually portrayed as wings. 

Dragons are often depicted with four linbs and
a set of wings either set at the front shoulder
area or a bit farther back in the central
backbone. 

Now wings present an interesting problem. Let's start with dragons. Dragons are often portrayed as beasts with four legs and a set of wings. That places them in a six-appendages category which groups them with quite a lot of insects. We tend to not like insects a lot, so dragons have one strike against them here. Additionally, although there are dragons that have full-sized limbs balanced out by center-set wings, many graphic depictions of dragons seems more like T-Rex with a set of shoulder-set wings added for the sake of ... well, not much. Those tiny wings wouldn't move a creature with the mass of a dragon-sized T-Rex. 

Angels v Demons - it's a classic opposition. In artwork, the angels
are often female, the devils are often male, and the colors used
are usually white v black. It could be any image, but with those
signposts, they would be recognized as angels v demons. 

Given that dragons are usually defined as "evil" or at least rarely the helpful image, what do we do about angels? Demons are easy - they're servants of evil so the fact that they have wings (or not) doesn't seem to apply. But angels live "on high". Usually they're depicted with wings. I'm not sure if those wings are just to help keep them aloft (it's apparently a long fall - just ask Lucifer), or if the wings are some artistic BS that worked its way into art and consciousness. Adding the wings once again places angels into the possible insect category, although they're supposedly all beauty and light and this and that. Yeah ... sure. 

Yes, this is a modern-day replica of a mermaid, but it was
that magnificent tail I was after for this photo. It's quite
nicely bifurcated. 

As a species throughout our stories and tales, we don't have a lot of three-limb creatures peeking up over the garden fence. Creatures either have four limbs in a fashion similar to us, or they have the six that the added wings seem to offer. The only three-limb creature I can think about would be the classic mermaid/merman image. Of course, that long fin is often bisected to allow the semblance of fused lower limbs and helps push them into the "acceptable" four limb category. 

In this Baroque painting by Sebastiano Ricci, Abraham is approached
by three angels. What I really love are the cherubim in the sky. The
toddlers with their tiny wings that would barely be able to carry them
two inches above the ground. Physics people ... it's all physics - LOL. 

Well, anyway, such are thoughts that traipse through my head as I'm falling asleep. I won't go into the mechanics of angel's wings - their placement, the breadth and width necessary to raise a being of our stature into the skies, etc. It could be a bit much for a Tuesday morning. Time to wrap this up and go shovel whatever we got overnight. Have a terrific and thoughtful Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow.