Communing with Nature
8.30.06
There is this enormous tree at work that shades part of the parking lot and patio area where I give health demos. Today I was aware of the birds conversing with each other, hidden behind their green leafy curtains, planning their morning worm hunt, or their next likely poop target. I wondered what they think of us huge landed animals as we wander or waddle around carrying things and babies with our featherless arms. They must resent the huge bloodmobile today, making its grinding noise under their living room, spewing cholorophyl robbing gases into their bedroom.
I pay more attention to animals lately as my kids obsess about getting a dog and we visit a canine park with regularity. They are such wonderful companions to so many people. I think of the animals and fishes we eat (especially the wonderful halibut I made the other night, smothered in fresh corn, jalpenos, butter, lime, garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper, but I digress) and how restauratns are now limited in their deep sea food offerings due to overfishing.
I wonder what it's like to live more directly accessible to our food stuffs. Of course, it's romantic to imagine growing one's own vegetables, grinding one's own grain, fishing one's own fillets and slaughtering sirloin on an as need basis. There would be no time to dance, play, read, create or meditate if we spent all our day time providing for this most base need. But really, what tastes better than a slice of sashimi, a peach just picked, a loaf of bread hot from the oven. slathered with freshly churned butter (which I can't say I've ever taste but it sounds good)?
The birds have quieted suddenly. Is it nap time or are have they gone off to Seeds-R-Us for shopping spree? I think of birds in cages, who chitter and chatter and fill the empty space of a widow's apartment. The cat who warms the lap of a pastor reviewing his sermon on a sunday morning. The millions of hamsters who capture the imagination of our children in their ceaseless rotary circumambulations. Animals are our sustance, our succor in solace, our beasts of burden, our planetary partners.
We also use animals as images or symbols to express ourselves: hungry as a bear, angry as a lion, mad as a fox, impsh as a monkey, loyal as an elephant (my favorite beast), skittish as a mina bird, cute as a kitten. Do animals look at us in the same way and describe their peers with human like attributes? Kid's movies, books and tales use animals to tell storeis and I wonder why. Is it easier to see ourselves when once removed in form? Or is it that we have some ancestral memories of our animal origins, our primeval time shared in a more natural environment. I remember learning about social marketing and an African nation's use of the Puma image to sell condoms. I wonder how that image manifests itself in the mind of a man as he uses one. Does he think of racing through the veldt, flexing powerful muscles, seeking his prey, while having sex? The male mind is often a mystery to me; women, of course think about the laundery during the act (just kidding, I'm sure a few of us slip in images of langourous sloths, playful puppies or equally ardent tigers while mating.)
I am inside now and the birds' kaffee klatch sounds have been replaced by the noise of an office, with machines, telephones, keyboards, computers and colleague's chatter. Would that a leafy wind could blow through every now and then with the scent of jasmine or a waft of petals landing on my desk. I'd even settle for a bird dropping if it meant a song was nearby.
There is this enormous tree at work that shades part of the parking lot and patio area where I give health demos. Today I was aware of the birds conversing with each other, hidden behind their green leafy curtains, planning their morning worm hunt, or their next likely poop target. I wondered what they think of us huge landed animals as we wander or waddle around carrying things and babies with our featherless arms. They must resent the huge bloodmobile today, making its grinding noise under their living room, spewing cholorophyl robbing gases into their bedroom.
I pay more attention to animals lately as my kids obsess about getting a dog and we visit a canine park with regularity. They are such wonderful companions to so many people. I think of the animals and fishes we eat (especially the wonderful halibut I made the other night, smothered in fresh corn, jalpenos, butter, lime, garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper, but I digress) and how restauratns are now limited in their deep sea food offerings due to overfishing.
I wonder what it's like to live more directly accessible to our food stuffs. Of course, it's romantic to imagine growing one's own vegetables, grinding one's own grain, fishing one's own fillets and slaughtering sirloin on an as need basis. There would be no time to dance, play, read, create or meditate if we spent all our day time providing for this most base need. But really, what tastes better than a slice of sashimi, a peach just picked, a loaf of bread hot from the oven. slathered with freshly churned butter (which I can't say I've ever taste but it sounds good)?
The birds have quieted suddenly. Is it nap time or are have they gone off to Seeds-R-Us for shopping spree? I think of birds in cages, who chitter and chatter and fill the empty space of a widow's apartment. The cat who warms the lap of a pastor reviewing his sermon on a sunday morning. The millions of hamsters who capture the imagination of our children in their ceaseless rotary circumambulations. Animals are our sustance, our succor in solace, our beasts of burden, our planetary partners.
We also use animals as images or symbols to express ourselves: hungry as a bear, angry as a lion, mad as a fox, impsh as a monkey, loyal as an elephant (my favorite beast), skittish as a mina bird, cute as a kitten. Do animals look at us in the same way and describe their peers with human like attributes? Kid's movies, books and tales use animals to tell storeis and I wonder why. Is it easier to see ourselves when once removed in form? Or is it that we have some ancestral memories of our animal origins, our primeval time shared in a more natural environment. I remember learning about social marketing and an African nation's use of the Puma image to sell condoms. I wonder how that image manifests itself in the mind of a man as he uses one. Does he think of racing through the veldt, flexing powerful muscles, seeking his prey, while having sex? The male mind is often a mystery to me; women, of course think about the laundery during the act (just kidding, I'm sure a few of us slip in images of langourous sloths, playful puppies or equally ardent tigers while mating.)
I am inside now and the birds' kaffee klatch sounds have been replaced by the noise of an office, with machines, telephones, keyboards, computers and colleague's chatter. Would that a leafy wind could blow through every now and then with the scent of jasmine or a waft of petals landing on my desk. I'd even settle for a bird dropping if it meant a song was nearby.
posted by Barbery at 8:51 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home