…Puerto Rico. Which I hope, dear readers, will (partially) explain my recent absence from the blogosphere. I am trying to divide my days between working on projects I’ve long wanted to do (finish Upside of Down, start exclusive-for-Kindle novella, bask in the Puerto Rican sun..) But I’ll be back, so please hang in there.
Just before I start posting about more reviews, photos of gorgeous San Juan, and announcements of contest winners, allow me to please share with you this gem I happened upon in the New York Times.
This 10-page article is about whales, and is absolutely fascinating. I’m a nature girl, and like a lot of people, am especially curious about whales, but even with my natural inclinations aside, I found the insights in this article to be pretty mind blowing.
Here’s one of the best parts:
“…We do have compelling evidence of the experience of grief in cetaceans; and of joy, anger, frustration and distress and self-awareness and tool use; and of protecting not just their young but also their companions from humans and other predators. So these are reasons why something like forgiveness is a possibility.”
The background to that quote is this: whales, until recently, had been fished to near-extinction. However, with preservation and re-population strategies, some species have rebounded. Past whale behavior had shown them to be extremely cautious towards the humans who’d massacred their kind into near-non-existence, but now, it seems that they just might have forgiven our past transgressions. They are interacting with humans again, and NOT in situations where food or feeding grounds are involved.
It would seem that whales are ready to give peaceful co-existence a second chance.
As a Palestinian I have to wonder - if whales can forgive humans for hundreds of years of hunting, how is it that Israelis and Palestinians can’t find a way to co-exist peacefully?
When we say that someone is behaving like an animal, we mean it in the sense that this person is sub-human, savage, and incapable of emotion beyond the most basic, instinctive kind.
After reading this I have to wonder if humans aren’t the more barbaric, savage species.
