Why Dogs Hump and Bees get Depressed by Marc Bekoff

 

  It was by accident that I stumbled upon the sunflowers and almost fell onto them when several bees were busy on them a few weeks ago. I thought my unexpected interference would upset them, but I was wrong. The bees kept their attention on their tasks as if nothing had happened. As I reflected upon my experience, I concluded that I was familiar to them; after all, I tend to my garden regularly, so why would they treat me with distrust?

  Two days later, I came across an interesting essay that mentioned that bees are able to recognize individual human faces. I got a bit emotional when I read it, and then I searched more about this subject and found several articles online about research on this topic. At the library, I landed on Marc Bekoff’s book: Why Dogs Hump and Bees get Depressed. His book is a compilation of essays about the fascinating science of animal intelligence, emotions, friendship and conservation.  

 Don’t be fooled by the small size of the bees’ brains, because size does not matter when it comes to intelligence. The complexity of their neurons correlates with their intelligence. Their tiny brains use abstract thought and symbolic language; in fact, bees have multiple abilities:

 “Each day they solve advanced mathematical problems of how to most efficiently travel between multiple sites. They know when to mix medications for the hive and distinguish complex landscape scenes, including types of flowers, shapes and patterns. Bees also learn categories and sequences and adjust them for future rewards. They are masters of mazes and show short-term and long-term memory, ranging from days to entire life spans.”

 One important concept he debunks is that of speciesism, or the idea that there are higher and lower classes of animals, a hierarchy that is used to justify the abuse of animals. In his essays Bekoff examines the science about morality, intelligence, emotions in non-human animals. He emphasizes the presence of empathy and cooperation and highlights the need to understand that animals have individual personalities. Furthermore, he explains that, just like human animals, non-human beings are also affected by traumatic experiences and psychological distress.

 Pigs, for example, hate to be kept in filthy conditions, and you may be shocked to learn that when you use the word “pig” as an insult, you are giving somebody a compliment, because pigs are empathic complex creatures. They are intelligent and sensitive. The same concept applies to other animals, and the more we learn, the more we need to open our minds to new possibilities.

 If you have been following this blog, you know how much I cherish books about animals, and I have to confess that Marc Bekoff’s books are my favorite ones. He has a special way of sparking my curiosity and awakening my fascination, encouraging me to read more and do more to expand my compassion footprint. This specific book was published nine years ago, and the scientific information he shared is more relevant now, because research in this field has continued to evolve and to help us gain a better understanding of the foundation of knowledge he provided.

 The essays he included were blog posts published in Psychology Today a decade ago, and I am happy to report that he continues blogging for this site.

 I also appreciate the fact that he includes several book recommendations about related topics. Marc Bekoff is an ethologist. An ethologist is a scientist who studies animal behavior. Bekoff is good at explaining complex subjects in simple terms, but what I enjoy the most about his writing is his enthusiasm to inspire us to make positive changes wherever we are. I appreciate his courage and embrace his compassionate nature, which he puts to good use, for his talents promote positive changes in the lives of others, both human and non-human beings.

 Marc Bekoff’s spirit is a wellspring of hope and action. He is an excellent role model of perseverance and patience. The light of his wisdom reminds us to never be sidetracked by the naysayers.

 This is a thoroughly researched read; it is entertaining, educational and life-transforming.

  Research has clearly shown that animals kept as pets have a positive effect on the mental and emotional health of their caregivers, so if we know this, why is it okay to abuse them?

 The Physicians Committee for responsible medicine shared some important information this week, and I hope it encourages you to take action.

 “Wayne State University in Detroit subjects dogs to invasive, painful experiments in which devices are implanted in the animals’ chest, in their hearts and around major arteries. The experiments, which have not resulted in any improvements for human patients, have cost taxpayers 12 million dollars and have killed hundreds of dogs. Please, tell the leaders of Wayne State to end these experiments immediately and focus on human-relevant research.”

 Take action at EndDogExperiments.org

I always say that what we do to the animals, we do to ourselves. Violent human actions including polluting the environment have a deleterious effect on our present and future and they contribute to destroy our home: Mother earth. We are all interconnected in the web of life, so we need to do our best to live in harmony with each other.

  Dr. Monica Aggarwal is a cardiologist who is supporting her patients by encouraging them to adopt meaningful healthy lifestyle choices. One of her patients had 9 stents placed in his heart. He was very frustrated and wanted to improve his life to stop going to the hospital. Dr. Aggarwal told him that the food he was eating was hurting his heart. Her patient hunted for a living, but Dr. Aggarwal inspired him to adopt a plant-based diet and his life changed for the better. They worked together consistently and her patient has not been back to the cardiac catheterization lab in almost five years.

Her patient is no longer a hunter, because he does not want to give meat to anybody else.

Here’s an interview with Dr. Monica Aggarwal, cardiologist.

 I stand in solidarity with the courageous women protesting for their rights in Iran. 

https://www.npr.org/2022/10/03/1126603977/iran-mahsa-amini-solidarity-protests

 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/oct/03/something-sparked-iranian-women-art-protest-mahsa-amini

 https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/04/opinions/iran-ukraine-autocracies-struggle-democracy-ghitis/index.html

 

 

 

Unlikely Friendships by Jennifer Holland

 

 If you need a book to uplift you, surprise you and warm your heart, Unlikely Friendships by Jennifer Holland will meet the expectations.

    These forty-seven stories of friendship will “connect you with the best part of yourself.” This read will shower you with smiles and tears of joy, and it will kindle a sense of hope.

  If you are skeptical, let me introduce you to the story of Bobbi the Dog and Bob Cat. After the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina 250,000 domestic animals were left on their own. Rescuers from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary found Bobbi the dog and Bob the cat roaming the streets of New Orleans. Nobody knows if they had shared a home before Hurricane Katrina slammed New Orleans, but a construction worker noticed that they were inseparable.

  At the shelter volunteers were unable to separate the pair. Bobbi the Dog (a female) was also found to be very protective of Bob Cat. They discovered that Bob Cat was blind, so Bobbi Dog had been leading the cat to keep him safe at all times. Bobbi Dog would bark at anybody who approached the cat, and eventually they were both adopted by the same person.

 The bond of their friendship was stronger than the effects of the hurricane.

  After hurricane Katrina, volunteers and rescue organizations worked tirelessly to rescue animals. Humans are not the only ones who suffer with wars and natural disasters. Animals do too, and they also need our help. This is why I support an organization called International Fund for Animal Welfare, which supports animals and people in Ukraine amid the cruel, irrational and inexcusable Russian invasion by Vladimir Putin, a dictator whose acts of terrorism are destroying the lives of families in Ukraine, and having consequences beyond the Ukrainian borders.

  

   Some photographs have the power to tell stories. The vibrant photos in Unlikely Friendships do just that. In the Indonesian island of Bali a macaque befriended a kitten.

The macaque groomed and hugged the kitten with loving care. You can tell by the expression on the kitten’s face that the feline welcomed the macaque's tender displays of affection.

 

The macaque also protected the kitten in every way he could. If other macaques or people got too close to him, the macaque would carry the kitten away from them, or he would hide him by covering him with leaves. 

  

 

In a village called Antoli, located in India, a young wild leopard sneaked into a farm every night to visit a cow. The villagers thought the leopard would harm the cow, so they called the Forest Department to have the leopard removed and transferred to a wildlife sanctuary nearby. However, the leopard came back every night, seeking motherly love.

 “The cow would lick the leopard starting with her head and neck, cleaning whatever she could reach as the leopard wriggled in apparent delight. If the cow was asleep when the leopard arrived, the visitor would gently awaken her with a nuzzle to the leg before lying down and pressing close. Other cattle stood nearby, but the leopard ignored them. The chosen cow seemed pleased to give the leopard her nightly bath. For almost two months the cat showed up around eight in the evening and cuddled with the cow until the first hint of sunrise…”

 

 

Koko the gorilla used sign language to ask for a kitten for her birthday. When she received the kitten, she took great care of her. She was always patient and handled her gently.

  The amusing stories in this book remind us to celebrate the power of friendship and motherly love, and to honor the glory of these precious bonds: a rat and a cat; a cockatoo and a cat; a pig and a dog; a sheep and an elephant, and so many others that will captivate your heart and open your mind to the complex inner lives of animals.

  Those of us who are attuned to other animals may not find these stories so surprising, but they are still reassuring to our intuition and perceptions.

  If the pensive eyes of the macaque in the book cover were not enough to convince you to read this spellbinding book, I hope my post will.

 Jennifer Holland is a science and nature journalist. She writes for National Geographic.

 

A message from Jane Goodall

Sylvia and Aki (children's book)

  “Sylvia and Aki” by Winifred Conkling is the true story of two American girls of different cultural backgrounds who grew up in the 1940s in the United States of America.

     The narrative is attuned to their joys, fears, dreams and loving families, and it reveals how their happy childhoods were disrupted by the evils of segregation, discrimination and social injustice. Unexpected challenges and hardship threatened the well-being of their families and their future.

  There is an afterword that gleans relevant historical facts and relates them to the lives of the characters. We can learn a lot from history; literature offers us unique opportunities to do so.

   I highly recommend “Sylvia and Aki”. It is a book that invites us to honor friendship, learn about history and spend quality time with our children.

O Pioneers

O you daughters of the West!

O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives!

Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united,

Pioneers! O pioneers

Walt Whitman

 O Pioneers is about the life  of immigrants who settled down on the plains of Nebraska in the late 1800’s. Willa Cather deals with many fascinating themes that make this novel a timeless story:  love, friendship, social prejudices and the relationship of the immigrants with their new environment. (I fell in love with My Antonia three years ago and I didn't know I would love O Pioneers just as much).

 The heroine of this novel is Alexandra Bergson, a woman ahead of her times.  Before her father passed away, when she was still a teenager, he entreated Alexandra to be responsible for the land. Therefore, the financial future of her family fell upon her shoulders.

 Eking out a living in Nebraska meant making the land productive and sustainable.  Unlike her mother, who was unable to adjust to the demands of the new place, Alexandra found ways to make the land prosperous, enabling her siblings to make a living on their farms.  
 Alexandra had three younger brothers, and she was able to surpass her siblings in terms of financial accomplishments. However, she was not free of the gender inequalities that shaped the prejudices and behaviors.

   Willa Cather is skillful at showing how women were judged differently from men, and some of these judgments continue to resonate.  I will analyze these aspects of the story because I think they tend to be overlooked by the critics.

 Alexandra was confident and practical, but she did not have time or energy to devote to love. Her brothers were  ashamed of the fact that she was still single at age forty. On the other hand, her friend Marie was married. She fell in love with Frank and married him hastily, but she later found herself in an unhealthy relationship.

 Marie was outspoken, spontaneous and affectionate whereas her husband was possessive and short-tempered. He drank too much alcohol and often bullied her. This marital mismatch led Marie to withdraw from him and to fall in love with another man: Emil (Alexandra’s youngest brother).  

 Alexandra was too pragmatic to sense that Emil and Marie were in love with each other.  She was interested in her male friend Carl Linstrum, but her brothers Lou and Oscar opposed a potential love relationship with him because they were convinced that Carl was only attracted to her money. Besides, they hinted at the idea that a man would not care for a single woman once she is in her forties. Through this conflict Willa Cather shows how the male characters feel they have a right to her money and to opine about her personal affairs. They also imply that as  women age, society does not expect them to get married. 

Did the same idea apply to men? No; it is made clear in the novel that Carl was expected to marry somebody younger. Hence, this idea carries the innuendo that a woman is a kind of love object that only serves the purpose of marriage when she is young.

 I will share some extracts of their conversations to support my statements.

“Lou turned to his brother. ‘This is what comes of letting a woman meddle in business,’ he said bitterly. ‘We ought to have taken things in our own hands years ago. But she liked to run things, and we humored her. We thought you had good sense, Alexandra. We never thought you’d do anything foolish.

“Alexandra rapped impatiently on her desk with her knuckles. ‘Listen, Lou. Don’t talk wild. You say you ought to have taken things into your own hands years ago. I suppose you mean before you left home. But how could you take hold of what wasn’t there? I’ve got most of what I have now since we divided the property; I’ve built it up myself, and it has nothing to do with you.

“Oscar spoke up solemnly. ‘The property of a family really belongs to the men of the family, no matter about the title.”

“Everybody’s laughing to see you get took in; at your age, too. Everybody knows he’s nearly five years younger than you, and is after your money. Why, Alexandra, you are forty years old!”

 ‘I only meant’, said Oscar, ‘that she is old enough to know better, and she is. If she was going to marry, she ought to done it long ago, and not making a fool of herself now.’

Another reason why I believe Alexandra was ahead of her times was her understanding of Ivar.  Ivar was a sensitive compassionate man who probably had a mental condition that made him vulnerable. People did not understand him, so they criticized him and shunned him. Alexandra, on the other hand, knew that Ivar was in need of empathy:

“As Ivar talked, his gloom lifted. Alexandra had found that she could often break his fasts and long penances by talking to him and letting him pour out the thoughts that troubled him.”

  Alexandra stood up for him whenever people tried to have him sent to an asylum. She continued to let him work for her despite the rumors against him. She disregarded what other people said and endeavored to support him instead of getting rid of him.

 After something bad happened, Alexandra found out that Marie and Emil had been in love with each other, and she was very disappointed with Marie. Interestingly, she blames Marie for the love triangle, another sign of how the social dynamics played against women by making them guilty of situations that do not only involve the female sex. (After all, her brother Emil had never been blind to the fact that Marie was indeed a married woman).

 “She blamed Marie bitterly. And why, with her happy, affectionate nature, should she have brought destruction and sorrow to all who loved her?  That was the strangest thing of all. Was there then, something wrong in being warmhearted and impulsive like that? Alexandra hated to think so.”

 Later in the story Carl would make her see that it had not been Marie’s fault. Yet there's still a tinge of blame in his statement:
 "It happens like that in the world sometimes, Alexandra. I've seen it before. There are women who spread ruin around them through no fault of theirs...they are too full of love, too full of life."

 Even though Alexandra and Marie were so different, they had something in common: their love for the land. This feeling for the land was a source of comfort and hope. Willa Cather describes this deep connection in her poetic prose:

“The chirping of the insects down in the long grass had been like the sweetest music. She had felt as if her heart were hiding down there, somewhere, with the quail and the plover and all the little wild things that crooned or buzzed in the sun. Under the long shaggy ridges, she felt the future stirring.”

  The metaphor of love seemed to be inscribed in the landscapes around them:

“There is something frank and joyous and young in the open face of the country. It gives itself ungrudgingly to the moods of the season, holding nothing back. Like the plains of Lombardy, it seems to rise a little to meet the sun. The air and the earth are curiously mated and intermingled, as if one were the breath of the other. You feel in the atmosphere the same tonic, puissant quality that is in the tilth, the same strength and resoluteness.”

Have you read this literary classic? Share your thoughts.

Doris Lessing 's "Love, again"

“Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.”

Rumi

Love, again is populated by artists and intense personalities. From the very beginning I was so hooked to these characters that I needed to know what would happen to them.

 Sarah Durham and Stephen become good friends. Sarah is a writer who works in a theater in London. Stephen is madly in love with a woman called Julie Vairon. Julie is dead, though. She died one hundred years ago. She had been a gifted musician, an artist and a writer; she had also been a kind of outcast who loved to dance in the woods.

 Julie Vairon is  the main character of the play Sarah and Stephen are working on together. Sarah is a woman in her sixties who had not cared about romantic love for two decades, and, all of a sudden, she falls in love with Bill, the young actor who plays the role of Julie Vairon’s first lover. 
  Sarah had lost her husband in her late thirties. She had to raise her two kids by herself, so she had always been too busy to date men. 
  We are then invited into the intimate territory of Sarah’s thoughts, fantasies and emotions.
  While I read this novel I came across many interesting revelations about society, and I found myself saying, "Finally somebody dares to assert what I have been observing and thinking for many years". 

  Sarah did not know she was capable of being in love this way. She wondered how these exhilarating sensations had evaded her for two decades and is somewhat shocked at feeling what she feels. There is a mutual attraction between Sarah and Bill but their relationship never flourishes, and I am left wondering if her feelings had more to do with lust than with love.

 The frustration of not accomplishing a true love relationship with Bill transforms into something else. Just like Julie Vairon, Sarah Durham falls in love a second time. Doris Lessing dredges up the obscure realities and inconveniences of falling in love. She will make you burn in flames of passion and desire, and will later splash you with icy water. 
 After she falls in love, Sarah Durham is caught up in a swamp of grief. She yearns for her lost youth and falls into the prejudice of thinking that she will never be cherished and desired the way she had been when she was young. For many years she had been too occupied with life responsibilities to be bothered with the physical changes that had been happening over time. We witness the stages of her grief.  
  Now she also examines her life under a new light of introspection. Her quest for love leads her to ponder over her relationship with her brother, mother,  father. She is also flooded with memories of past lovers. 

   Everybody adores Julie Vairon. Her life is a mirror of their heartbreaks. Sarah and Stephen are two heart-broken souls “living in their own deserts”. They understand Julie Vairon’s misery from their own personal experiences and they are deeply touched by her music. Amid their despair, they share moments of solace and comfort in literature and philosophy.

  Yes, Julie Vairon is dead, but her spirit is alive through her art, music and words. It is the shadow of these characters’ love stories.  
  Sarah and Stephen are fond of each other.  They miss each other, but their friendship is crippled by misunderstandings, fears and doubts. The fact that Sarah is a woman and Stephen is a man plays a role in the dynamics of their communication. Yet their sincerity  had brought them together. I have never come across a writer who deals with these matters so openly.

  Doris Lessing made me feel that Sarah and Stephen are my intimate friends. I kept mulling over their inner conflicts and troubles after I finished reading this novel.

  I would have given this novel a different kind of ending -- a happier, hopeful one.
  It is clear to me that Doris Lessing had more faith in the arts than in the act of falling in love.

  If human relationships intrigue you and keep you awake at night, this novel will captivate you. If, on the other hand, you prefer fairy tales, you may be better off reading something else.

  Doris Lessing was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. In 2008 The Times ranked her fifth on a list  of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945". In 2001 she was awarded the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement  in British literature.

Wind, Sand and Stars

“You’ll be bothered from time to time by storms, fog, snow. When you are, think of those who went through it before you, and say to yourself, ‘what they could do, I can do.’”

  Have you ever wondered what it feels like to fly?

  Antoine Saint-Exupery reveals the pitfalls, dangers and adventures of flying a plane in the thirties and forties, but his anecdotes go beyond the flying experience. He will also make you float in the air through his musings and profound insights on life and human relationships.

  “Wind, Sand and Stars” is an invitation to fly away to distant places. This memoir will make you relish each moment of your life.

 The sour taste of tragedies and upheavals leads us to mold resilience, strength and comradeship. Saint-Exupery takes us on this path, while he inspires us to reflect on our own life experiences.
   His writing enchants and bewitches me, for he has the ability to put into words the emotions and feelings that we harbor in our hearts. His stories resonate on a personal level.

 As you enjoy his adventures you will visit different places: the Saharan desert, The Chilean Andes, the Argentinian Patagonia, the Pyrenees and many others.

 Reading this book is like embarking on a captivating journey to the past, present and future. His writing has the power to evoke childhood experiences:

“Gazing at this transfigured desert I remember the games of my childhood—the dark and golden park we peopled with gods; the limitless kingdom we made of this square mile never thoroughly explored, never thoroughly charted. We created a secret civilization where footfalls had a meaning and things a savor known in no other world.”

   Yet the greatest feat of this masterpiece may be the journey into the inner self and into the core of friendship and human connections. It has been extremely difficult for me to make a selection of quotes from this book.  I have savored each and every line, and I know I will return to them in search of wisdom and inspiration.

“Once again I had found myself in the presence of a truth and had failed to recognize it. Consider what had happened to me: I had thought myself lost, had touched the very bottom of despair; and then, when the spirit of renunciation had filled me, I had known peace. I know now what I was not conscious of at the time – that in such hour a man feels that he has finally found himself and has become his own friend. An essential inner need has been satisfied, and against that satisfaction, that self-fulfillment, no external power can prevail.”

“But by the grace of the airplane I have known a more extraordinary experience than this, and have been made to ponder with even more bewilderment the fact that this earth that is our home is yet in truth a wandering star.”

“Men are not cattle to be fattened for market. In the scales of life an indigent Newton weighs more than a parcel of prosperous nonentities. All of us have had the experience of a sudden joy that came when nothing in the world had forewarned us of its coming – a joy so thrilling that if it was born of misery we remembered even the misery with tenderness. All of us, on seeing old friends again, have remembered with happiness the trials we lived through with those friends. Of what can we be certain except this – that we are fertilized by mysterious circumstances? Where is man’s truth to be found?”

“Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions.”

"Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded. These prison walls that the age of trade has built around us, we can break down."

“I lay there pondering my situation, lost in the desert and in danger, naked between sky and sand, withdrawn by too much silence from the poles of my life. I knew that I should wear out days and weeks returning to them if I were not sighted by some plane, or if next day the Moors did not find and murder me. I was no more than a mortal strayed between sand and stars, conscious of the single blessing of breathing. And yet I discovered myself filled with dreams.”