I am not sure what this is about, something you may feel each week as you begin reading this column. But here’s a hint: I was engulfed by the sensation of a thunderstorm as I wrote, not to mention dinosaur chickens, three-legged dogs, and a lion attack.
Let’s break this down.
Rabia and I headed for our morning walk even though the phone app said a storm was coming. After all, I can look up and judge the gathering of dark clouds, or feel positive ions coagulating before the cloudburst. I was seduced into that calculated risk by a desire for the sights and sounds of the lake and its inhabitants preparing for heavenly fury. There they were: a parade of herons flying at eye level in front of us, watching from our bench, on their way to shelter. And, ducks coalescing in groups while geese honked overhead looking for more of their kind.
The first rumble behind us was a warning to go home. The clouds unleashed their burden and lightning creased the sky as I took off my shoes and Rabia licked the wet from her paws. From the window bench I watched the torrent as Rabia snuggled and shook beneath my dangling leg.
One creature’s comfort is another creature’s storm.
Soon, I was reading about a dinosaur with feathers they think flew like a chicken. One fossil still has soft tissue made visible under ultraviolet light, which enabled scientists to somehow conjure it in 3D. So now they understand the evidence differently than from the past. Sometimes, seeing something from a different angle or through a new lens will grant us a changed perspective to correct an old assumption.
Next, I read in the “The Athletic” about how coaches love to show animal videos to motivate their teams. It was an explicit example of how we project human qualities onto animals, or as the article animated in reverse, how we use characteristics of animals to inspire human behavior.
The college and NFL coach Pete Carroll would show a video of a three-legged dog chasing a car as an example of a critter doing what its DNA tells it to do even against all odds. The article included an amateur video taken in South Africa of a pride of lions attacking a herd of buffalo. Six or more lions separate a calf from the herd and tackle it. They all fall in a river. The lions bite the calf on every side and drag it up the embankment. But then, two crocodiles attack and pull the calf from its hind legs backward. The lions eventually win the tug-of-war only to have the herd of buffalo return en masse and surround them. One by one the huge buffalo charge the lions, sending some of them sailing through the air. Eventually, even after being held and bitten by lions and crocodiles for almost eight minutes, the calf is freed and disappears into the safety of the herd.
Coaches, the article explains, use this video to underscore that sticking together and refusing to concede can overcome tall odds.
We’re in the midst of a storm. We need a new lens to reveal the mistaken assumptions we held in the past. Sticking together and refusing to concede can and may disperse the bullies and avert disaster. That’s what this is about.
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