We Are Just Too Versatile

Aren’t we fascinating creatures? Here we are, bipedal creatures walking around, bumping into each other in a million different ways. Communicating in every way we know how and still managing to misunderstand each other an amazing number of times.

Perhaps we are just too versatile for our own good. Quadrupeds and other bipeds and creatures with no peds at all seem to communicate fairly succinctly without half as much trouble.

Stick your nose into the face of an angry toucan and it will simply take a small piece to remember you by, leaving you with a hole to store the memory in. Lesson learned, leave angry toucans alone. Simple.

Reach out with your hand and try to take away a hungry lion’s meal and he will let you have it while he eats your hand. You will never stick that hand into another animal’s mouth again.

We try to be more civilized. We shake our heads no, slap your wrist, turn the other cheek, yell at you and then, when you think you understand, sometimes we sneak around and stab you in the back, or try to wipe your culture off the face of the earth. Your language, your politics, your religion, your God, the shape of your eyes, the color of your skin, all become ways of identifying who you are so we can obliterate you.

It isn’t enough for us to be the top predator. We think we want to be the only predator. Of course there is that age-old question. What do you call a predator without anything to hunt?

Extinct.