Symbols

Apparently, the Missouri legislature doesn't think we have enough state symbols. We already have about a gazillion: the state seal, the state flag, the state bird, the state song, the state tree, the state rock, the state mineral, the state fossil, the state fish and the state aquatic animal, even the state dinosaur ... and on and on. See them all here.

One day this week as I was listening to the local news segment during PBS's Morning Edition, I learned our legislature -- never hesitant to tackle the tough issues of the day -- has voted to designate a new official symbol for our state: the "state invertebrate." "Oh, my God!" I said inwardly. "They've pegged the Archbishop of Canterbury as a Missouri symbol!" But no. The Missouri legislature has chosen the crawdad (although they're calling it a crayfish) as the Official State Invertebrate. I was certain ++Rowan had been robbed of his due honor. So imagine my surprise when I learned today that Archbishop Williams has written to Nigerian Primate Peter Akinola asking him to cancel his plans to visit the United States and install Martyn Minns as head of the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA). So now I take back. ++Rowan does have at least one vertebra. So he wouldn't have qualified for the Official Invertebrate anyway.