JOYFUL PIECE #12
Hello world, it is me, trying to pay attention to what I hear and see...
The Aristotelian Soul. Image by Ian Alexander, courtesy of Wikipedia Commons, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Is the above image correct? Did Aristotle get it right?
For a while now I have been growing increasingly conscious of our oneness with all of Creation. New evidence continues to emerge on “conversations” between trees and fungi where chemicals and information on threats and opportunities are exchanged. Increasingly, the ability of animal species to communicate is being exposed. Our senses are so limited to servicing our priorities that we miss information conveyed in frequencies that our ears cannot detect, in wavelengths our eyes fail to see.
In the past, studies with primates, cetaceans and canids have shown that humans can communicate with them as well. The challenge has been that much of that research has the goal in benefitting humanity in some way, such as the use of dolphins in warfare studies, and comfort pets and rescue dogs. I feel that a great opportunity is lost with that approach. We all come from the blessed moment when life expressed itself on this planet, and that makes us all kin. Yes, the icky and the yucky, the slithering and the crawling, the warm and the fuzzy, the cat and the puppy, the poisonous, and the bloodily carnivorous are all relatives to humans as revealed in our DNA. And we cannot forget the swarms of bacteria and other organisms navigating our bodies, bringing us nutrients as well as disease.
Are there good and evil, useful and unuseful organisms in the big picture of Creation? We have too long focused on that divide to pragmatically survive. With our longer lives and growing body of facts about our environment it is now time for us to transform those facts into information— and that information into knowledge and even into the ephemeral wisdom we all seek.
In our hubris, during the Renaissance and Age of Enlightenment we placed humanity at the apex of Creation even though the body of literature and the intellect of many ancient philosophers and poets pointed to our interrelatedness with other creatures. These ancient connections existed in the world’s religions and are portrayed in the various anthropomorphic mythical deities and symbols such as Ganesh, sacred Druid trees, magical tricksters in Native American cultures, the Biblical serpent, the Hydra, to name a few. So, at some level we have always known, at the risk of being called heretics, that the plant and animal world, our kin, vigorously communicated— perhaps even with us.
As scientists continue to explore the human brain, the development of consciousness, the centers of speech and thought, more evidence emerges that our previous assumptions may be standing on precarious foundations. I used to snorkel off the Florida coast, enjoying the variety of ocean life. One day, three squids swam up and position themselves in front of me, their large eyes scrutinizing this odd-looking creature with mask and snorkel. Was I the observer or the observed? What drove their curiosity to override their fear instinct and hang close to a creature that savored calamari? What message did they have for me?
Sonia Shah has gifted us with an insightful essay, The Animals Are Talking. What Does It Mean?, that makes us question our certitudes. She discusses the differences between thought and speech and how animals can convey different messages, from alarm to specific cues as to the sources of their alarm. There is so much to discover yet…
There is joy in not being alone, in discovering our larger family…
