Book recommendations: Eugene Linden's The Octopus and the Orangutan

The Octopus and the Orangutan: More True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, and Ingenuity

This is one of my favorite animal books of all time. Eugene Linden has written a number of books about animal intelligence, and this was the first one of his I read. It describes how animals display intelligence in a number of ways, including tool use. Orangutans, for example, will often use a tool exactly how it is supposed to be used, while chimpanzees will use it for every purpose except the one for which it is intended! A captive octopus will often waste away and even die if not challenged enough, and their caretakers have to constantly dream up new food puzzles to keep them occupied.

My favorite story involves penguins who surprised their human neighbors with an activity that I won't describe, because it's too good for me to ruin it for you!

If you can find it at the library (the Schenectady library has a copy), or if you feel like ordering it, it's definitely worth your while to read. Linden's style is very easy; every book of his that I've read seems to fly past quickly. He's funny, compassionate, and breaks animal behavior down to a layman's level very well. If you have read this book, and you're interested in others by Linden, this is also very good:
The Parrot's Lament : And Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence, and Ingenuity
The Parrot's Lament is more descriptive of the emotional lives of animals, and how their feelings are demonstrated through intelligent behavior. After reading this, I came to realize that it's very difficult for humans to give pet parrots the emotional, social, and intellectual stimulation needed to be truly happy. I was also impressed at the trust and love displayed by animals in various circumstances. Again, it is also very easy to read, and while the scientific information is very easy for a novice to understand, it is not too simple to be enjoyed by a knowledgeable person.

Ban the Grays!

Today, I'd like to talk about gray hair, and its implications for our society.

It is well-known that people with gray hair are more likely to die than people who do not have gray hair. Gray-haired people are more likely to die of heart-attacks and cancer than other people. They are more likely to suffer from Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and cataracts than other people. A person with gray hair is less likely to survive a cold or flu virus than other people, and more likely to break a hip than other people.

There are also social implications for people with gray hair. Those who are not gray-haired are often unwilling to date gray-haired people, and often express disgust at the idea of two gray-haired people having sex. They have a harder time finding a new job than other people, and they are often not welcome at popular dance clubs. Adding to our social burden is the fact that we are experiencing an epidemic of gray hair that has never before existed in the world. There are now significantly more gray-haired people than there were even twenty years ago, and there's no end in sight to the growth of their numbers.

There are some obvious solutions here. First, it should be determined whether the person is tolerant of hair dye. If we can make insurance companies cover the cost of hair dye, it will make that person's hair no longer gray. Sure, it grows back, but that's why doctors need to keep a close eye on patients' roots and get them to dye their hair regularly.

For those who aren't tolerant of the chemicals in hair dye, depiliation may be an answer. Shaving can remove gray hair as it crops up, and for stubborn cases, whole-head electrolysis might be necessary. It's painful, but absolutely necessary in the face of an epidemic. While female gray-hairs may experience shame at the loss of hair, they need to be reminded that this is for their own good, and that there are always wigs. Insurance should NOT, however, pay for wigs, because they are not necessary for health purposes, and if we go around handing out wigs to these people, they'll think that it's okay to get gray hair; after all, hey, free wig!

These solutions are temporary, of course, until more research is done into the mechanisms by which hair goes gray, leading perhaps to medications to prevent gray hair. If we can find triggers that occur in early childhood, we can possibly lace baby formula with the necessary building blocks to prevent gray hair from growing in the future. Also, since it is commonly recognized that stress causes gray hair, those who engage in stressful activities should be denied health insurance and have their pay docked so that everyone else isn't funding their bad behavior. We should give out rewards to people who are living stress-free lives, and punish those who are not.

Makes sense to me!

Recurring dreams

I believe that dreams can reflect our deepest fears and greatest hopes, especially when they happen over and over. I have two dreams that recur constantly, although one of them has changed in the past few years.

The first one centers around my maternal grandfather. Before he passed away, I had nightmares at least twice a week of him dying. These went on for probably ten years before he died, and they were awful. After his death, though, they changed. I now have at least one dream per week that he is alive. I argue with myself, saying that I know what happened, I saw him, and my subconscious mind replies that I was just dreaming that, or that it was a hoax. I feel very uneasy about it, but am happy that things are okay now. Waking up from that one is disconcerting, and brings back the grief again. I'm happy to say that they're occurring less frequently now, but I still get them from time to time.

The second one is more awful to me. I am constantly dreaming that my parents are coming here, kidnapping me, and dragging me back to their house, away from Brian. I try to contact Brian, but my phone doesn't have his number programmed, and I can't for the life of me remember the number. I try to email, but can't find his email address or remember it. I am told that I should know better than to think I deserve him, and that I need to realize that my place is with them, not with some guy.

This dream happens at least once a week. One of my greatest fears is to be torn away from Brian and deprived of my adult freedoms. I love him very dearly, and I feel very fortunate to have him in my life. I know that he is loyal to me, and that he needs me just as much as I need him, so it would take an outside force to divide us.

I also have a fear of losing my independence. I hated being a child and teenager, not being able to do what I wanted when I wanted, being under someone else's control. When my life became my own, I was happier than ever before. I like being able to use the telephone when I like, being able to visit friends anytime they ask, and the freedom to have company in my own home. When I was younger, and didn't have this freedom, my friends would frequently become pissed off at me, and I'd lose their friendship. The dreams are reflecting a deep, subconscious fear of going back to that state, even though it could not reasonably happen.

These things don't really crop up in my waking life, fortunately, but the nightmares sometimes stay with me all day, a miasma of anxiety and dread that I can't shake. I wonder sometimes if the sleep disordered nature of fibromyalgia keeps my mind too close to the surface of consciousness, where what should have been forgotten within five minutes of waking is still running in a loop through my head. I wake from these with cramped, tight muscles, my lower back in a hard spasm that doesn't go away for hours unless I treat it* and have Brian massage it out.

I wonder, is a huge part of my muscle pain from clenching up during nightmares? If so, I need to find something that will make them stop, or make me sleep deeply enough that the shut-off between brain and muscles actually works. It goes both ways, too; sometimes I wake up with the sleep paralysis still switched on, and I go into a panic attack, other times I'm thrashing and twitching like a dreaming puppy.

* This is the ONLY thing that Flexeril has ever been able to do for me--release spasms. It doesn't make me sleep like it does other people.

Mind Over Matter--Wishful Thinking

"Mind over matter" is a concept that permeates our culture, facilitated by televangelists, charlatans, and movie producers, among others. A good special effects team can make just about anything happen, including talking frogs, flying brooms, and moving castles. Miracles are claimed by overgroomed TV ministers, who make their living squeezing money out of elderly people who are desperate for a glimmer of hope as they near the end of their lives. Salespeople of all types promise impossible results from mediocre products, their sales technique being more important than selling quality merchandise.

So, is it any wonder that those of us who are ill, or who are fat, are constantly reminded that all we have to do is want something badly enough, and it will come to us? And that our perceived flaws are entirely the result of our own failure to just wish or pray hard enough?

Having a chronic pain condition, I have done a lot of searching for answers. I want to live a normal life. I want to get better. I want to be able to do the things I loved doing before I got sick. It's amazing, though, the idiotic comments I get:

"Maybe if you didn't dwell on it so much, you would start to get better."

"It's all in your head!"

"Think positive, a good outlook can make things SO much better!"

"You have to WANT to get better."

Other sufferers of this illness are nodding their heads at those quotes. They've heard them all before, because there are a lot of very naive people out there who want very badly to believe that health is something entirely under their control. If you do all the right things, and have the right mindset, you won't get sick. You won't die. And, if you DO, at least you'll have some accountability for it. Nothing's more frustrating, after all, than a bad situation for which you can't find someone to blame, even if it's yourself.

Mental illness is even worse for this sort of thing, since people seem to regard depression as "a bad mood", and schizophrenia (among other conditions) as not knowing how to behave in public. After all, if you accept that the lady talking to herself and rocking back and forth in the bus station is not at fault for her condition, you may be obligated to do something to help, or at least contribute to helping her. That's messy, and expensive, so we just assume she's done something to bring it upon herself, or that she probably deserved it anyway, and she gets to continue rocking and muttering while everyone scurries around her as quickly as possible, holding their breath as long as they can.

So it is with fat, where a crushing force of blame is laid squarely on larger folk for taking up more space than some people think they ought to have a right to take up. Your volume is not only unacceptable, and everyone else's business, but it's also regarded as a moral failure, a sinful rebellion against proper thinking, so to speak. It seems to be believed that a person's metabolism will go faster if that person would only want it badly enough, that they wish hard enough to burn their fat away.

Many of the diet books out there do natter on about state of mind, being in "the zone", and thinking yourself thin. But, while willpower IS necessary to deprive oneself of adequate nutrition for years on end, it seems that the fat-haters out there actually think it's as easy as rubbing a magic lamp and asking a genie to give us a new, more socially acceptable body.

I shouldn't have to say this, and it bothers me that I have to say this, but "Mind Over Matter" is just a phrase. Religious beliefs aside, you are no more going to melt fat with thin thoughts than you are going to bend a teaspoon with metal twisty thoughts. I'm not going to stop being ill by not acknowledging my illness. People don't stop being depressed by ignoring the depression. Life doesn't work that way. These nutters go on and on about "The Laws of Physics", then conveniently pretend that thought has the direct power to overcome those laws. Come ON already.

Mind Over Matter, to me, means the ability to figure out the workings of the world. I can't will myself into the air and fly like Superman, but people went and designed airplanes. I can't wish my pain away, but medicines can help soften it a bit. The key is, however, as we figure out these things, we need to be responsible about the application of our knowledge and technology. We are an arrogant species, and we often think we have it all figured out, until the unforeseen consequences blow up in our faces. We created automobiles to move us faster, and now we have pollution and car accidents on a scale that the original creators could not have even dreamed. We create new drugs to modify our bodies' chemical workings, then become horrified when the medicines, as they heal one bodily process, destroy another one.

And now, we're rushing into putting little kids on low fat diets, with those in charge of such things saying, "We can't wait for scientific evidence that this is a good idea, we have to act now." We're marginalizing people based on their volume, shaming them for being fat, without considering the harm done not only to the marginalized, but to society as a whole--we are damaging our very humanity, doing a terrible injustice so shameful to acknowledge that expiation will be a long time in coming, if ever.

So let's toss the wishful thinking crap out on its ear, okay? Let's replace "Mind Over Matter" and the blame game with empathy, compassion, helping others in need, and seeing people as people, not as "fatties" or any other crude subcategory designed for the glorification of one person's ego via another person's misery. Yes, yes, now I need to be nailed to a piece of wood or set on fire or something, right? Thought so.

Nature Preserve

I went with friends today to a nature preserve. We saw a lot of creatures, and here are some of their photos:



(Click the photo to go to the gallery)

Enjoy :)

Reminder

Claudia would like to remind everyone to take time to stop and lick the flowers:

Photography

I've added some items to my shop; specifically, I'm showing the very nice matting on the photos. The two fish are in standard sizes that can be popped into a ready-made frame. Check them out, and if you think you know someone who would like them, pass along the link? :)