“Nothing matters. Nothing matters. Nothing matters. It became my mantra.

December 18, 2018 6:10 AM

Holding hands with a chimp Jesse Bering brings perspective from his reflection brought on while caring for a chimpanzee named Noelle.
posted by Yellow (2 comments total)

This is a touching article, and I think there's probably a lot more that could be gained by us all coming to have similar insights about our kinship with animals and our own nature as animals. Just for starters, I think there's probably a lot more joy that could be found in this life if we thought about our lives that way, about what aspects of life make the animal side of you happy, or unhappy. Do you want to sit in the office or go stretch your legs? (I ask as someone who just spent hours at a desk.)
posted by salvia at 5:27 PM on December 18, 2018 [1 favorite]

I also really like this part: "The effect was that, by making me care less, it made me value my life more. That’s what the emotion of awe is, really... I suppose it’s the beauty of resigning yourself to the truth of an eternity without you.... Shame has a way of losing its sting once you realize that its venom is man-made."

It reminds me of this part of Mary Oliver's poem "Wild Geese" --

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
posted by salvia at 5:38 PM on December 18, 2018 [3 favorites]