Out of place?

[Tone]

Ever since something was said in my "King Kong" thread this has been in the back of my mind and somethin I just keep thinkin about all day long. But it's nothing new to me, nor to anyone else.

I think I first realized or started to think of it when I was really young, in my backyard watching a squirrel eat pieces of bread I was throwin out for him, and watched as a bird approached the squirrel but it just kept eating - at which point I asked myself why I couldn't do that. Why does the squirrel and other animals run from me? Don't they know I won't hurt them? How is it programmed into animals instincts to not trust humans? Why is it a turtle is not afraid to sun baske next to a 10 foot crocodile, but when they see humans they swim away from the surface as fast as they can? Of course the older I got the more viable explanations I received. Naturally we're afraid of things that are much larger than us, so it's no wonder the squirrel would run from a human and not be afraid by the similairly sized bird.. turtles are use to living in the lake around crocodiles, and not use to interacting with humans.

But I always thought of humans as being "out of place" on earth. Could the reason for that be because we are more advanced? Sure. But how is it we advanced faster than animals that have been living here since the days of the dinosaurs? What is it about us? Is being that advanced a blessing or more of a curse? How can we have come from this world? Is it just a coincidence the conditions were just perfect for humans on earth to develop.. or something more?

Now - I'm not tryin to spark an evolution debate - cause I could honestly argue for each side. Just sharing some thoughts on something that's been on my mind all day - The world would be better off without the human race. That's hard for me to say - cause I'm someone who loves the gift of life and what it means to be "human". We live for a whole different list of reasons than other animals. Where it seems TO US in our eyes that animals live just to live - to reproduce.. they eat, sleep, play, fight for survival.. where human lives seem much more complex - we can choose to live our lives for a career, for a loving family, we can set goals and feel the undescribable joy you get when you accomplish them. We deal with stress of not making enough money to provide for our families, we get depressed because our life isn't as fruitful as our neighbor's, we experience love on a whole new level. That level could be defined as 'comfort.'

Primates, whales, dolphins, elephants, and a bunch of animals can be observed also experiencing love. Elephants are extremely emotional creatures and it is common knowledge they can get very attached to one another. But animals have to worry about not only their natural predators - but also poaching, being held captive to live their life in a cage, losing their environment - their homes to construction. Not to say we as humans don't have our own struggles - but whereas all of their struggles seem to come mostly from external factors (humans) - ours seem MOSTY the result of our OWN doing. Not only do we ruin our own lives, but we ruin the lives of countless animals we share this world with.

I have to get back to work now - but I just wanted to share with anyone who might be interested - I know it's long so I don't really mind if no one reads, maybe I mostly just wanted to get out in words what I've been feeling / thinking about. If you did read - thanks.

[TAVS]

They dont run from us here in Colorado; maybe it's just you creapy Nebraska folk

[funsounds]

the squirrels on campus practically attack students around here...they demand food and mug people...it's crazy...

NO JOKE...they're scary bold...

[Rosebud]

Yea, I hear ya Tone. It makes all the things we go though seem very trivial when we look at the whole picture and actually realize who we (humans) affect.

[RSK]

Ever since something was said in my "King Kong" thread this has been in the back of my mind and somethin I just keep thinkin about all day long. But it's nothing new to me, nor to anyone else.

I think I first realized or started to think of it when I was really young, in my backyard watching a squirrel eat pieces of bread I was throwin out for him, and watched as a bird approached the squirrel but it just kept eating - at which point I asked myself why I couldn't do that. Why does the squirrel and other animals run from me? Don't they know I won't hurt them? How is it programmed into animals instincts to not trust humans? Why is it a turtle is not afraid to sun baske next to a 10 foot crocodile, but when they see humans they swim away from the surface as fast as they can? Of course the older I got the more viable explanations I received. Naturally we're afraid of things that are much larger than us, so it's no wonder the squirrel would run from a human and not be afraid by the similairly sized bird.. turtles are use to living in the lake around crocodiles, and not use to interacting with humans.

But I always thought of humans as being "out of place" on earth. Could the reason for that be because we are more advanced? Sure. But how is it we advanced faster than animals that have been living here since the days of the dinosaurs? What is it about us? Is being that advanced a blessing or more of a curse? How can we have come from this world? Is it just a coincidence the conditions were just perfect for humans on earth to develop.. or something more?

Now - I'm not tryin to spark an evolution debate - cause I could honestly argue for each side. Just sharing some thoughts on something that's been on my mind all day - The world would be better off without the human race. That's hard for me to say - cause I'm someone who loves the gift of life and what it means to be "human". We live for a whole different list of reasons than other animals. Where it seems TO US in our eyes that animals live just to live - to reproduce.. they eat, sleep, play, fight for survival.. where human lives seem much more complex - we can choose to live our lives for a career, for a loving family, we can set goals and feel the undescribable joy you get when you accomplish them. We deal with stress of not making enough money to provide for our families, we get depressed because our life isn't as fruitful as our neighbor's, we experience love on a whole new level. That level could be defined as 'comfort.'

Primates, whales, dolphins, elephants, and a bunch of animals can be observed also experiencing love. Elephants are extremely emotional creatures and it is common knowledge they can get very attached to one another. But animals have to worry about not only their natural predators - but also poaching, being held captive to live their life in a cage, losing their environment - their homes to construction. Not to say we as humans don't have our own struggles - but whereas all of their struggles seem to come mostly from external factors (humans) - ours seem MOSTY the result of our OWN doing. Not only do we ruin our own lives, but we ruin the lives of countless animals we share this world with.

I have to get back to work now - but I just wanted to share with anyone who might be interested - I know it's long so I don't really mind if no one reads, maybe I mostly just wanted to get out in words what I've been feeling / thinking about. If you did read - thanks.

I read it all.

First thing that came to mind: Dam Tone! You have one imaginative mind! And I mean that in the best possible way! I thought I was the only one who thought of these things!

You will make a GREAT student. I've always learned - question EVERYTHING.

I enjoy watching the animal planet channel. I love watching animals in the wild. AWAY from human presence.

Being human, our brians have evolved into much more complex structures, than our related chimps. Firstly, because of SIZE. ours is larger. Secondly, we have opposable thumbs. We can grip things easy. Well - it was fate.

Along with the 'advanced' features, we have to accept them. Our brains are advanced - therefore, we feel pain, jelousy, comfort, warmth, pleasure, ON a different LEVEL than our close relatives, the chimps.

Should we feel better? Should we feel 'Lucky'? Should we feel 'cheated' by the mechanisms of Science? I REALLY DON'T KNOW. that's for individuals to answer.

thx for the read Tone, i enjoyed

[RSK]

the squirrels on campus practically attack students around here...they demand food and mug people...it's crazy...

NO JOKE...they're scary bold...

lol! my campus too!

those bastards are conditioned not to fear humans - it's un-mc-f'n-believable

i'd walk by one, and i'd see him/her on the side walk, he's be eating scrap food. and you'd think he'd run like, but the squirrels on my campus are SOLDIERS...

...they don't budge at all!

instead, they wait for you to pass, and then once you are out of their site, they start chewing again...

...it's kind of freaky...as i pass, i see his/her eye on me at ALL TIMES...

I wonder what he's thinking........mmmmmmmmm...?

[Junsui]

He's probably looking at your nuts!

[Junsui]

Here you go Tone:

Well, not all advancement has brought destruction, I'm sure. I would have to look up articles and research it and all, but I know we have done some things to help nature. Yes, there are greedy people out there that cause more harm than good, but there is also the other side of human nature that we really don't hear that much about. It's not like we are only doing bad things in the world, but those topics definitely sell more in the media. I know what you're trying to say though.

Yes, we do make good food sources, but I was trying to point out that not all animals are afraid of all people. It wasn't always because of the food the animals started approaching my dad, but he didn't do anything to harm them and they learned that.

[FrenchMaid]

Yes I read it Tone!
You seem have a personnality that analyse a lots... you make a lots of sence..

Its true that we make the choice of living our life the way we want...what I meant by that is if we really want we could pretty much have a happy live even the cirscomstance of it.. but sometime we tend to worry too much about stupid thing or hold anger toward people for too long because we got hurt or because we are stuborn...

Animal don't have that feeling well not like us anyway...!!!!

Me quite often I wonder why we are born??.. really why??.. we live and get older or sick and died.. but for what...I believe that when you died you REALLY DEAD you don't come back as someone else or something else.. so what the point... if we are born to died...

[Tone]

Here you go Tone:

Well, not all advancement has brought destruction, I'm sure. I would have to look up articles and research it and all, but I know we have done some things to help nature. Yes, there are greedy people out there that cause more harm than good, but there is also the other side of human nature that we really don't hear that much about. It's not like we are only doing bad things in the world, but those topics definitely sell more in the media. I know what you're trying to say though.

Yes, we do make good food sources, but I was trying to point out that not all animals are afraid of all people. It wasn't always because of the food the animals started approaching my dad, but he didn't do anything to harm them and they learned that.

My stance on that is: Yes - some people are doing good things for nature. Whether it be protecting endangered species from hunters or poachers, rescuing domestic animals from abusive homes, rainforest conservationists, clean off animals that have suffered from an oil spill - what is the most common theme? We protect them from things WE have done TO THEM in the first place. That's why I say the world as a whole would be better off WITHOUT the human race. Without humans there wouldn't be shark hunters who capture sharks, cut their fins off while they are still alive, throw them back in the ocean until they drown. Not to mention the countless number of sharks, dolphins, whales that get caught in our fishing nets. You wouldn't be able to watch the disturbing, brutal videos of seals being beat to death with clubs, or have to watch an infant elephant squirm in terror while it stands close to it's dead mother as a group of surrounding poachers moves closer and closer in. How many animals could have led a free life out in their natural environment, able to interact with their own kind instead of stuck behind a cage in a zoo or circus. How many animals wouldn't have to suffer from neglect and abuse. Man enters THEIR environment, and then when someone gets hurt the animal is labled a 'monster' - a maneataer, hunted down, and shown no mercy.

Maybe it's just how I grew up. I grew up where the son of my babysitter got mad one day and threw his pet baby bunnies against the garage as hard as he could and killed them all. I watched kids throw rocks at a squirrel trapped in a small tree when walking home from school. Sick people who catch fish or small frogs and then pull them out of the water just to squeeze them in between their fingers. People who think it's funny to put fireworks inside live turtles and lite them. I lived next to a family and spent so many days looking out the window, or from my back yard at their dog they would just chain up in the back, and feed and water. Never received any attention. If it was pouring rain outside - the dog was still on the chain - soaking wet. Seems every other year they went through dog after dog and it gets to the point where you wonder why do they keep getting new ones if all they do is neglect them?

Why? Why do humans think they have this right? Cause we're smart? Cause we're advanced? What has our advancements and technology done? Help solve the problems we created yesterday, while creating a whole set of new ones for future generations to try to solve tomorrow? What have we done that makes us so great? We destroy the beauty in this world.

There is no point to this really. It's just... sad.

[Tone]

I read it all.

First thing that came to mind: Dam Tone! You have one imaginative mind! And I mean that in the best possible way! I thought I was the only one who thought of these things!

You will make a GREAT student. I've always learned - question EVERYTHING.

I enjoy watching the animal planet channel. I love watching animals in the wild. AWAY from human presence.

Being human, our brians have evolved into much more complex structures, than our related chimps. Firstly, because of SIZE. ours is larger. Secondly, we have opposable thumbs. We can grip things easy. Well - it was fate.

Along with the 'advanced' features, we have to accept them. Our brains are advanced - therefore, we feel pain, jelousy, comfort, warmth, pleasure, ON a different LEVEL than our close relatives, the chimps.

Should we feel better? Should we feel 'Lucky'? Should we feel 'cheated' by the mechanisms of Science? I REALLY DON'T KNOW. that's for individuals to answer.

thx for the read Tone, i enjoyed

Hey thanks a lot, RK - much appreciated.

Did you know dolphins brains are much larger than the human brain? And I don't have any exact facts but I'm pretty sure they have been around far longer than we have. Perhaps that is how they are able to communicate with each other so well. But ah! No opposable thumbs. Plus they are of the ocean. That's what I mean by was it just coincidence so many things added up for human life to develop or something more?

Answers to this - as well as to your questions Frenchy we probably never will truely know until after we pass on to the unknown. One thing we do know is that life is much more than it seems, there are so many unknowns, so many "what if's."

[Junsui]

I wasn't really trying to point out that there are people who save animals from things we do, but ok.

[Tone]

Then what is it that people do?

What did you mean then.

[Junsui]

It doesn't matter.

[TAVS]

One thing we do know is that life is much more than it seems, there are so many unknowns, so many "what if's."

And so many Who Cares.