A friend told me this, and while I was angry about it at the time…the more understanding we have, the more understanding we are.

I am sorry to devalue your eloquent response, but your bringing up “A Good Man is Hard To Find” reminded me of a teacher I once knew, who, shall we say, inadvertantely switched the two adjectives in the title . This is now a not-so-literary joke among a few friends of mine… your examples are much better. ;)

I still need to investigate them more fully (probably a poem a day off the Manyoshu would work) but I’m already struck by the simple beauty and eloquence of the metaphors. And I would not have suspected Japanese poetry was originally inspired by Chinese poetry. Thanks again!

All right, I’ll check them out! Thanks!

Those gorillas…I don’t know, but score one for them! Heard about chimps making weapons too, wasn’t in a zoo, but I think they were being studied and they were throwing them at the people who drew close enough. All right, we had better go to bed! See you later—hope I don’t have gorilla-poop dreams. ;)

Yes, do tell everything!

Hi Frank, I heard on another thread that you were an expert of sorts on poetry, especially Japanese? Would you care to enlighten us a bit? Thanks!

Serena, you had me worried there—I too love the Confessionals and didn’t want to see a knock against them. I love T.S—don’t know if he was confessional, but he sure seems like it at times. I love both Lady Lazaraus and Daddy—they seem like part of the same poem. I realized as I kept reading the comparision was not spurious but thoughtful. I think it is a mark of the success of your writing to be able to make such a comparison that started me off angry and wondering and led me to think more deeply about your analogy. It breaks my heart to think that while he was commiting the act, Abraham didn’t really wanted to die, just was waiting for someone to intervene. It led me to a question about the Confessional poets, sort of unrelated—especially for Plath, is their fame greater because of their deaths? I guess this could sort of tie in. I wonder what we would think if Abraham had been stopped while alive, if the webcam had recorded an intervention instead of his death? Would it become a mere curiosity, unreported because there was no horrifyingly tangible end result? Once again, I hope not. I thought about what you said about young people’s suicides and the nature of society. It too was profound. The same people that do not care when a young man is dying on webcam are the same people who force the expectations upon us. I am still relatively young, and I know sometimes the mere pressures of teenage life are excruiating. I had and have a relatively good life, but even sometimes I would wonder “would it be better to die young”, or “there’s no way I could possibly survive this”. Sometimes it honestly felt like hell. All I know is that for some reason, I did manage to survive the pain, and it was always through thinking “this too shall pass”. I was probably either unusual or lucky, as not all in life does pass, and I will probably never quite understand the depth of despair that Abraham or my friend’s brother felt. I am shortsighted—I can see the reasons, but not understand. I have too much of this desire to scream at them “wait, wait, get help, and wait!” Thanks for writing this piece and for taking time to respond so graciously! Keep writing!

And if there were more people who did the same, we wouldn’t have to look for it! ;).

If you’d like to read about the arctic insects, I found something on http://www.polar.ch2m.com/Files/PDFs/Newsletter05_16_04.pdf. Just glanced at it about the insects, but you might enjoy the other stuff too. Man, can you imagine these bugs?

There are so many things to discover about each animal that I think if we went through them all not only would people be astounded, there’s so many things we’d never do again. Do you know how many vegetarians there would be? It is kind of a willful lack of understanding we humans have about animals. I got this image of the rats rolling over in glee and have to giggle myself. Thinking about what you said about robotic impulses—science is sooften taught in terms of stimulus/response. How do we know if something’s alive? Poke it, shine a light at it, etc. They discuss cold-blooded reptiles like my lizards—oh, if they don’t sit out in the sun, their body temperature drops and they die. Well, does the lizard have a little thermometor that it reads and when it drops below a certain point, it immediately begins to freak out? No, the lizard realizes it’s more comfortable in the sun so it sits out there. The basis for this might be deep and evolutionary, but the lizard does not regard it as such. Humans are the same way. Why do we eat cookies in the winter? Because the carbohydrates boost our energy and our brain transmitters and thus, our happiness. But I gurantee you that I don’t think about why I’m eating the cookie—I want the cookie, it makes me happy, and I am at peace with the world (perhaps we should think about why we eat cookies). In the same book that I read about the cookies (it was Genome, by Matt Ridley, mostly about genetics if you like that, but some talk about animals as well) I also read about sea slugs who could remember receiving mild electric shock. A sea slug? It’s difficult to think about ascribing animals emotions because it also flies in the face of the idea that we’re the intelligent ones around here. Not so. We learn from animals and their adaptations, and I’m sure that’s what the first human had to do. The other thing about us is that we believe we’re intelligent because of our culture and language. We say this gives us a medium for sharing ideas and learning, whereas animals rely on instinct, etc. First of all, other animals have cultures—wolves, elephants, dolphins, whales…and all of them, we have realized, have some form of communication beyond scents and scratches in trees. This sounds a bit crazy, but I always wonder when I hear animals vocalize what they are saying. Pleasure? Danger? Temperature reading? Vocalizing can be dangerous—a lot of prey animals such as rabbits don’t vocalize, which leads me to believe it’s done more by either predators who can risk being heard (they just don’t eat, not get eaten) or large animals with few natural enemies. Only a human would dare take down a bellowing elephant or whale. The exception would be small birds, who are rather noisy but yet could get eaten by a hawk…well, maybe this theory only works in mammals. Anyway, another thing you made me think of is that we humans have dulled our senses because we only interact with other humans. A wild animal in their habitat has to deal with other animals who also share that habitat, aware of their habitats and unique worldview, but we humans think that our neighbors are the Johnsons next door, or maybe even the Asians on the next continent over. We have enough trouble trying to live with and understand other humans…now imagine throwing animals into that! And imagine what they with their equally important emotions could be introducing us to…especially if they spend their days having a comparative blast. Bet they do, no cell phones! It’s amazing to me that when there are so many other animals with better senses of hearing, sight, smell, etc, that we managed to survive and proliferate out of the early world. Kind of embarrasing, actually… and what I also wonder is if animals enjoy play so much, and if they benefit from it as well as having fun, what more does it say about us humans that we seem deliberately determined to deprive ourselves and our children of fun and relaxation? Your sentence about the gazelle—see, that we could do well to remember. Even if we only get metaphorically eaten by a lion when we have our own problems. A friend of mine and I are always planning to go off to Scotland and raise sheep, so I especially appreciated the sheep anecdote. We’ll take them seriously. And I also met a primate with the same sense of humor as Georgia. First time I saw the orangs at close quarters we were warned by the keeper that the mother likes to spit at people. The keeper was telling us about them, they were staring at us, and just as she was about through her spiel the guy standing next to recoiled. Orang water/spit all over his new sweatshirt. I got a little but he got the full blast. It WAS kind of funny…primates especially seem to have good senses of humor. Don’t know about the sea slugs! I’ll have to read Balcombe, too! Thanks for another great, thought-provoking animal post!

I was taking down the Christmas tree most of the day, subsequently c logging my vacuum cleaner and then snuck away to the pleasure of animals. Yes, now I remember the infamous Madagascar hissing cockaroaches. Good thing you passed that up—although “Sleeping with Cockaroachs” would a good book title. I see the logic in going to a cold climate. Not only is it perhaps more comfortable…you can put the layers on, but there’s only so much you can take off, but more intriguing in the sense that rainforests manage to be biodiverse because of their advantage in rain and temperature. The adaptations needed for a harsher climate are worth a look in themselves. Although air-conditioning—god, what would we do without air conditioning? Talk about an adaptation. Nor do giant bugs tend to abound in snow, am I right? Wait….let me check that…geez! Not giant cockaroaches, but apparentlysome arctic insects survive because their bodies contain what scientists can antifreeze protein, or AFP. Some larvae can apparently survive in snow when the temp is 80 below. WOW. Though I still wouldn’t worry about arctic insect attacks. I sent off my email to WoW late last night. Glad to know they usually respond—middle of the week sometime you think, or later. That was an excellent idea to focus on travel as well, because of course, how do you get these animal experiences? I also focused on the idea that when domestic animals were featured, there are millions of people out there who love to talk about their pets, and they could come to this site and continue the conversation, plus check out the other offerings, in case they’re also closet politcos or art or book lovers. I’d love to get back into learning more about astronomy. With my sort-of literary bent I used to lovelearning about the history and mythology behind the constellations, and then of course delving into the science. I’d probably just read the “stars” like fp and Hines for awhile, though….okay, that was bad. Can’t wait to see if this takes off! And now to your post about animals and pleasure. I’m going to reply to it separately, otherwise you’ll be reading a mile of type. You may anyway!

You would think, right?

Something simple but especially important with all the wintry weather would be to shovel or snowblow people’s driveways if you know they are not young or strong enough to do so, or are merely going through a difficult time in their life. When my grandmother had a stroke my mother and I will never forget our neighbor clearing out our driveway for us. The man two doors down routinely does our subdivision’s sidewalks because he loves using his snowblower. As I shoveled today through a lot of heavy snow I felt grateful I am able to do so and thought about people who cannot.

That’s so sad. I’m sorry. But hey…at least you’re a good journalist. Better than being a bad actress!