Word of the Day: Anomaly

Anomaly [uh-nom-uh-lee]. A deviation from the common rule, type, arrangement, or form. An incongruity or inconsistency. It's almost as if someone took the big, chunky word "abnormality" and condensed it until it became smooth and polished.

But I believe "anomaly" describes more than just an abnormality. It describes something curious and unusual rather than an simple glitch in the world's structure. The way the syllables flow, you would think it's some kind of flower or name for a person. But it's not- and the world as we know it is filled with anomalies.

The freakish-looking fruit fly in this picture provides just one example. Its strange condition was caused by a random genetic glitch- or in other words, an anomaly.

In addition to fruit flies, siamese twins, and 4-legged ducks that make the news, nature is filled with plenty of smaller, everyday anomalies. This bird that I photographed a few summers ago is a leucistic Robin, which lacks pigment in certain feathers due to a mutation.

The character Adah from the Poisonwood Bible is also somewhat of an anomaly- not just physically- but in the way she thinks. She rarely speaks, spontaneously thinks up palindromes, and in many ways, stands out from the other members of her family.

The fact that I slept in until 8 today may have also been an anomaly (although it could have been that I just didn't set my alarm clock).