- Share This Post
- submit
- 0
-
Sparkle (0)
Bear with me while I stroll down memory lane for a bit. When I was very young, Zippy the Chimp was all the rage. I had my own stuffed Zippy, whom I dearly loved and carried around with me everywhere. I also had the Zippy the Chimp Golden Book, which was well loved, well worn and well read. I don’t remember if the Cowboy Zippy pictured above was in the Golden Book, but I do remember seeing that picture often.
Now go forward a couple of decades into the future. I was in Missouri visiting the St. Louis Zoo. I happened to be in the Monkey House (or whatever it was called at that time) and witnessed a baby chimp in diapers behind the glass playing peek-a-boo with a human toddler. This game went on for quite some time, much to the entertainment of all the people in the area.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I was watching the news when a story came on, complete with video, of an older woman whose pet chimp attacked a friend. The chimp got upset and attacked the woman's friend, sending her to the hospital. His human companion was stabbing him with a butcher knife and attacking him with a shovel before calling 911. The 14 year old chimp, Travis, was eventually shot and killed.
Not a pretty story. Certainly this was not MY beloved Zippy the Chimp that I grew up with.
A bit later I read a commentary in the local StarTribune Paper written by Jane Goodall, renowned British anthropologist. The title? “Sorry--Not A Pet.” The New York Times also did an article about this. It was in the Home and Garden section of the paper, "Living Together," and called, “My Monkey, My Self.”
My question for you is this: How the heck did we get to the point where The New York Times writes a piece called, “My Monkey, My Self?” Or that a grown chimp lived with an old lady, wore human clothes, ate ice cream and sea food at the dinner table, played with a computer, and watched TV?
Did my beloved Zippy the Chimp have something to do with taking us to this place of being?
I find it very fascinating that in the opening paragraph of this post, I used the term “all the rage.” I never use that phrase. Could it be that the chimps/primates/animals are enraged that we humans think we are connecting with them when we take them from their natural state and attempt to turn them into human clones? What does that say about our own humanity when incidents like this occur?
I’m an animal communicator. I Talk2theAnimals. They are animals, not humans. They are animals who have their own code of existence, their own law of nature, their own way of being, their own Circle of Life. I respect that and honor that as much as possible. They are animals.
Perhaps the world would be a different place if we humans met the animals where they are in their existence, instead of expecting them to become “civilized” into our plane of existence. Maybe the world would be a different place if we began to learn from the animals, instead of expecting them to always “learn” from us. Maybe the world would be a different place if we had the courage to look deep inside ourselves, get to know ourselves, and be willing to grow and change ourselves for the better, instead of expecting Zippy the Chimp to make us better.
Harmony,
Janet Roper
