Professor Bob

 

Animals All 

That’s not to say that we are not very intelligent, thoughtful, able to plan ahead to the future we want. We can do those things. We know that we live in the present moment, suspended between the past and the future, on a thread that runs from what was to what will be.

Cats can know that the wildebeest come to the watering hole every afternoon and they head that way when the sun is high, but they cannot communicate that information to other cats. The young watch and imitate the actions of their elders. 

Chimps can collect tree nuts and take them to a large, flat rock. There they select a hammer stone and break the nuts open, while the young watch and imitate the actions of their elders. 

Homo Sapiens can talk. We can share our thoughts and feelings. We can teach our children. We can tell them where to find food and how to coexist with other members of our tribe. We teach them how to construct a shelter against the weather. We tell them where to be when the rains begin and how to predict when that will happen by watching the stars at night. We actively show them how to fashion and use tools or maps or clothing, or to avoid threats.

But when we look at the “why,” there is less to distinguish us from animals. 

We need to survive; to breed, to protect the young, and pass our genes and knowledge on to the next generation. We have evolved to want to do this. This desire is instinctive, inborn, as it is with other animals. The animal who does not survive, breed and protect their young, the animal that lacks these impulses will not pass their genes on into the next generation. And that is the name of the game, the thing we are driven to do. 

Our senses and abilities have evolved under the same pressures as those of the entire animal kingdom. We can see, hear, smell and taste in order to find food and mates. Few animals can see the color red, but we and our primate kin can, for we are fruit eaters and red is the color of ripe fruit. Our sense of taste has evolved to stop us from eating poisonous things, our sense of hearing to hear sounds in the range of frequencies that carry important information.

 Our senses are tuned to the need to find food and mates, and protect the young, just like all the other animals. We are, in fact, animals all.

Professor Bob