I wonder if one day we will look back at our human race and shake our heads, because we have sought to understand our world by approaching everything from without, rather than from within. It is highly exciting to learn about other species that we share our planet with, but is trapping them and fitting them with all sorts of cumbersome tags, bands, GPS collars, cameras, and other gadgets really necessary? It makes it easier for humans to study them, but how well do we really know them? Is not all of this weighing, measuring, sexing, probing, and prodding a violation of their being? Those scientists who have immersed themselves into the lives of the animals that they studied, have gained a far deeper understanding of them. Dian Fossey lived with gorillas for close to 20 years. Jane Goodall has studied chimpanzees for 60 years. In order to truly know something, you must quietly observe it. Modern scientists, impatient in their quests, seem to prefer looking at data, charts, graphs, and probabilities. They may obtain certain facts about the animals in their studies, but they never really know them.
We have replaced our senses with a myriad of plastic and metal implements and contraptions. Once their purpose has been fulfilled, most will end up in a landfill. With every new device that is invented, we create a wider divide between our senses and the world we live in. Automation has left us with obsoletion. We may have lightened our load in terms of work and given ourselves more time for recreation, but what have we sacrificed?
Indigenous people have always lived in balance with Nature. Wisdom was intuited and passed down from generation to generation. Knowledge about the world around them came from patient observance of animals, herbs, sea life, ocean tides, stars, and seasons. It was learned from elders and mentors, and through apprenticeships. It was absorbed through the senses. Modern man appears to have lost the ability to simply perceive and listen. We have lost our connection to the earth itself, placing concrete, asphalt, shoes, and buildings in place, to create barriers that separate us from that which we need to understand. We will never understand our world as long as we believe that we are separate from it. And, we cannot truly know ourselves until we know that we are part of everything.
