Slowly but surely time heals all wounds . . . and wounds all heels. As such, as the President's approval rating would imply, he and his posse are edging ever closer to getting their comeuppance.
Now that the message seems to be out there, I'm finding the means to back away from my angry obsession with the state of the union and it's leadership, just enough to get back to allowing the gray matter to meander into more philosophical pastures.
Of late I've been pondering just what sets mankind apart from our animal brethren.
There was a time I'd have told you that it was our ability to laugh. But I have a Lab-mix at home that actually smiles at us in our family. Kind of a sly, Elvis curling of the upper lip that was spooky until we confirmed that he only did this when he was glad to see one of us rather than when he wanted us to leave him be. And ok, it's a smile and not a laugh, but I figure if he can go that far, he probably has his moments where he secretly gets a chuckle or two outta stuff.
I've seen film footage too of dolphins and chimpanzees who, in their own fashion seemed to be sharing a guffaw or two. So maybe laughing isn't the thing that sets us apart.
Later I'd have contended that perhaps the difference between the species was that mankind could laugh at itself. But I've seen so little of that, that I've become either too jaded or cynical to put much weight behind that theory anymore.
Then it occurred to me that maybe what set us apart from them was our ability to actually comprehend that there are other species and such.
In all fairness however; I could never be so self aggrandizing as to think for a moment that I had any idea what goes on in, say an iguana's head, let alone share any real insight into what he or she can or could not comprehend.
Then recently a genuinely viable possibility was presented to me in a book I was reading. The author, by way of telling his tale proposed that mankind, at least modern mankind…say within the last 10,000 years of our approximately 3 million year (widely accepted) earthly existence was different from all the other animals on the planet because we are the only species who willingly (yet inexplicably) make it a practice to lock our food away from each other and all other of God's creatures and force our selves to find a means to win it back from storage through labor.
While this difference is cultural as opposed to organic, genetic or biological it does stand, along with other probable reasons as at least a part of the answer to my ponderence.
Figure. For the better part of 3 million years, man existed in a forage/hunt and gather mode and much like any species on the planet, food was basically anyone's for the taking. Plant a few seeds here, pull up a root there, hunt some game over there, catch a fish over here. Thankfully with better living through tool use, man as well as all other species were presented with a planet that yielded free food to everything and everyone.
Fast forward to the last 10,000 years and as a result of the agrarian revolution, you can't get a meal without a paycheck or a meal check of some sort anymore…anywhere. The millennia of the "free lunch" is over.
How did we get here? How did we come to believe that this was the better way to live rather than the means proven effective since our time began?
Because we're the more intelligent species? "The smartest monkeys"?
Well, while the rest of creation simply goes their way and eats off the fruit of the land without a care or a cost, we on the other hand spend 8, 10, 12 or more hours each day in voluntary bondage to other people in order that we might buy back a product that the earth has been producing and supplying all life forms with, since the day it cooled down from a fiery furnace for free. We've decided to depend and become reliant on others to provide our very nourishment, then we simply shake our heads and excuse it with a resigned "that's just the way it is!".
That's not the way it is, folks. That's what we accepted and choose to do, contrary to the natural laws that existed before the last 10,000 years. That's what we, unlike every and any other species on the planet have made of our existence on planet earth.
And for me, it goes a long way towards pointing out just what makes mankind different from the rest of the residents here on "God's little half acre".
We got to a point where we felt bold enough to mess with the natural order of things. And now we have little option but to work all week for "the man" in order to buy back the very food that the earth once gave us all for free as a birthright.
Why? As stated, For some reason or many, the culture of modern man agreed to let someone lock it all up!
Enjoy the weekend.
Monday and returning to the treadmill are just around the corner.
5 comments:
Good post.
Another way we humans differ from animals. Utensils. Animals don't use utensils. Neither do I sometimes. Feeling animal, I will go right into the fridge and grab tuna salad with my bare hands and eat it like some sort of feral child. Then I will throw my feces around the den.
Another way we are different. Spirituality - we humans have an inherent spiritual and religious nature, with the vast majority of us pursuing some form of spiritual or religious truth, or engaging in religious ritual. You don't see squirrels or cows pursuing God. However, every time I catch and release a fish, I bring the fish eye to eye and tell him to tell the other fish that he met God, and to go, be kind, be a good fish, for I have commanded it. I am hoping I have started some fish religions in the north woods.
Also, we humans are aware of time, unless you're my mother in law who in 21 years, I've never known to be on time.
Also, we humans do not sniff each other's ass when we meet each other. Or sniff where the other fella went pee-pee.
A few typos in my original reply...so here's the edit.
You're right. I've never seen a cow genuflect or a badger sing a hymn. But whether that would imply spirituality or superstition is debatable. While other animals do not lean visibly toward ritual or outwardly display a religious nature, they none the less still adhere to whatever voice of God that originally presented itself to them. We as humans on the other hand have throughout history worshipped and later left for dead and decay every blessed deity that has ever come to our short lived, temporary attention from Apollo, to Zeus, to Odin, to you name them. There's a bone yard full of Gods we as a species have worshiped or sacrificed and ultimately killed someone else for since our time began.
To my knowledge, cows and little furries at least appear consistent in whatever it might be that they believe or have faith in.
An awareness of time doesn't show superiority...just the tendency to be obsessed and anal.
And I've been to enough corporate staff meetings to know that there's plenty of ass sniffing and territorial urination going on among we humans. We've just got it down to a very subtle and sophisticated science compared to that of the dog.
Oh. And the throwing your feces around the den bit? I knew that!
And that's why we've never had you over for dinner!
Be good on yerself, John-boy!
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