I feel like caring emojis are the right response to this post and yet it won’t let me enter emojis. So image these words as a hug and a deep breath taking in all that has been lost.
Thanks Karen. Hugs received with gratitude. As that great philosopher Kermit the Frog says: “Life is about meetings and partings; that is the way of it.”
Wow, stunning observations. I've only just learned the difference between a cactus and canyon wren (don't laugh), but I've wondered why I haven't heard the canyon wrens lovely call in so long. Thank you for highlighting and surfacing this dramatic info about what's happening to our bird friends. Just a thought though... "totem animal" "spirit animal" and related ideas use language based on dusty stereotypes and appropriation of native cultures. It's just as easy to say it's his favorite animal, which also doesn't anthropomorphize the animal as having some reciprocal connection to your friend. Your friend liked the bird, the bird cares not about your friend. That is part of the beauty and mystery of this natural world.
Thanks Lacy--so glad you enjoyed the post, and I appreciate your thoughts...I need to work harder at misappropriations! However, although anthropomorphism--the act of attributing human experiences to other species--has long been dismissed in the scientific community, we know animals experience emotions. Human/nonhuman connections can be and have been measured. I'm starting to think anthropomorphism is more a belief in human exceptionalism. Even as a biologist, I lean toward what the philosopher Alain observed: One is not permitted to imagine that beasts have a mind, for there is no end to the consequences." I like to think that we are no different from the creatures that inhabit the world with us...but that's me. Thanks for your thought-provoking comment!
Maybe we are all losing our home…
Indeed, and you'd think we might want to do something about it...
I feel like caring emojis are the right response to this post and yet it won’t let me enter emojis. So image these words as a hug and a deep breath taking in all that has been lost.
Thanks Karen. Hugs received with gratitude. As that great philosopher Kermit the Frog says: “Life is about meetings and partings; that is the way of it.”
Wow, stunning observations. I've only just learned the difference between a cactus and canyon wren (don't laugh), but I've wondered why I haven't heard the canyon wrens lovely call in so long. Thank you for highlighting and surfacing this dramatic info about what's happening to our bird friends. Just a thought though... "totem animal" "spirit animal" and related ideas use language based on dusty stereotypes and appropriation of native cultures. It's just as easy to say it's his favorite animal, which also doesn't anthropomorphize the animal as having some reciprocal connection to your friend. Your friend liked the bird, the bird cares not about your friend. That is part of the beauty and mystery of this natural world.
Thanks Lacy--so glad you enjoyed the post, and I appreciate your thoughts...I need to work harder at misappropriations! However, although anthropomorphism--the act of attributing human experiences to other species--has long been dismissed in the scientific community, we know animals experience emotions. Human/nonhuman connections can be and have been measured. I'm starting to think anthropomorphism is more a belief in human exceptionalism. Even as a biologist, I lean toward what the philosopher Alain observed: One is not permitted to imagine that beasts have a mind, for there is no end to the consequences." I like to think that we are no different from the creatures that inhabit the world with us...but that's me. Thanks for your thought-provoking comment!