the diag at center of the university of michgan campus
on a beautiful day
a good people watching place to be.
—
“i’m still passionately interested in what my fellow humans are up to.
for me, a day spent monitoring the passing parade is a day well-spent.”
-garry trudeau
-Garry is an american satirist whose comic strip, doonesbury,
reflected social and political life in the united states during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
apes playfully tease each other just like humans
Joking around is a key element of human interaction — one that starts emerging in babies as young as 8 months old, before they can even speak. Now, a new study is suggesting that the human instinct to play goes further back than previously thought.
An international team of cognitive biologists and primatologists documented playful teasing in the four species of great apes: orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. They identified 18 distinct teasing behaviors, indicating that “the prerequisites for humor evolved in the human lineage at least 13 million years ago,” per a press release.
“Similar to teasing in children, ape playful teasing involves one-sided provocation, response waiting in which the teaser looks toward the target’s face directly after a teasing action, repetition, and elements of surprise,” explained lead author Isabelle Laumer.
The concept of playful primates isn’t new — Jane Goodall previously documented such behavior — but this is the first study to systematically analyze it. “We hope that our study will inspire other researchers to study playful teasing in more species in order to better understand the evolution of this multifaceted behavior,” Laumer said.
—
“the very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen,
the feeling that whatever happens, it’s okay…
you’re either free to play, or you’re not.”
-john cleese
—
source credits: Proceedings of the Royal Society, Laumer, Winkler, Rossano, Cartmill
photo credit: anup shah, getty
when having snow tires put on my car
had an early appointment
brought my laptop and a giant coffee
to settle in for an hour and a half or so.
while waiting
i planned to write and read and catch up on things
knowing there is always something going on
with any group of fellow ‘waiters.’
i sat at a high table to make for easy typing
most everyone else sat in the lower, more comfortable chairs
quite soon after my arrival, the ambiance changed.
on the left side in front of me
a woman sat down
in the seat next to the remote control for the tv
meant to help the time pass, amuse, and distract everyone.
she immediately took control of the controller
switching whatever channel had been on
to fox news.
the woman in the family to my right
politely asked if she would mind changing
the channel from fox to something else.
she said yes and all good
in no time
we were all watching baywatch reruns
in high def, on the big screen, 90s music pumping
those red bathing suited beauties
running on the beach, boating, emoting, doing pull-ups, rescues, looking hot, and whatnot
and david hasselhoff, the hoff.
the workers at the tire store desk were mesmerized
some young enough to never have seen it before
some old enough to have had the poster and remembering.
i refilled my coffee
the channel was not changed again
throughout my entire (now 2 hour), wait.
new customers coming in had mixed reactions
what an early holiday surprise!
“of all men’s miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.”
-herodotus
“we are like books.
most people see only our cover,
the minority read only the introduction,
many people believe the critics.
few will know the content.”
-emile zola
—
image credit: newton free library
haezel who woke up at 4 am to milk her cow and taught us how to make cheese from it,
made pastry and coffee with us, and who also helps the local community and school children
enthusiastic fellow hikers
our wonderful guide who led the way, was endlessly patient, never let us get lost,
and shared his knowledge of the country and its nature, stories, history, and spanish with us
along with our talented and very funny driver who navigated incredibly challenging roads
with the owner of a local medicinal plant and food organic farm
who also shared her homegrown sugarcane liquor
called ‘moonshine’ or ‘contraband”
toasting new friends
observant hikers
fellow traveler crew
costa rican cowpokes
breaking bread (and lots of beans and rice) together
sharing our day
boat adventurers
a shy boy and his rooster.
—
such memorable people all.
i loved meeting strangers who became friends.
the costa ricans were some of the most positive people i have ever met.
—
“it is good people who make good places.”
-anna sewell, british novelist
what a funny, sweet, sad, moving book –
a brilliant story of the enduring power
of human connection, forgiveness, and hope.
—
“we have all of this in common, yet most of us remain strangers, we never know what we do to each other, how your life is affected by mine. perhaps we hurried past each other in a crowd today, and neither of us noticed, and the fibers of your coat brushed against mine for a single moment and then we were gone. i don’t know who you are. but when you get home this evening, when this day is over and the night takes us, allow yourself a deep breath. because we made it through this day as well. there’ll be another one along tomorrow.”
-fredrik backman (anxious people)
“I live in Ukraine with my family. I love my country, family, friends, people.
I fight for them. I fight for Ukraine.”
-Oleksandr Usyk
—
art credit: elana vasylieva, ukranian landscape watercolor
this tired penguin duo is not unlike the first two people i met out in the world today
—
stopped by the store at 9am
for a simple return
on my way to the rest of my day
the only other human i saw
was a slow-moving young employee
who began our encounter
by telling me he was sorry
for accidentally spraying a lot of cologne on himself
when mistaking the top of a bottle for the bottom
shared that he was really tired
worked until 11pm, closed the store at 12am
came in early at 6am, opened the store at 7am
in between
he drove home, ate, calmed down,
tried to get a few hours of sleep in
(no time for a shower, maybe explains his ill-fated cologne mishap)
we talked about how busy it would be as the day continued
when another employee arrived
who began her conversation with him by saying:
“don’t even talk to me, i’m going on break.”
his not unexpected response:
“but, you just got here.”
she quickly shot back a:
“i told you to not even talk to me”
when i left i thanked him for working
knowing they both
still had a very long day ahead.
—
“i finally got 8 hours, of sleep. it took me 4 days, but whatever.”
-author unknown
as we prepare to gather together in a few days
often with all kinds of people
often anticipating how it will go
often happily surprised.
—
“it’s never the differences between people that surprise us.
it’s the things, that against all odds, we have in common.”
-jodi picoult
—
photo credit: muppets.disney.com
during this time of year, when we are so lucky for our bounty, why not help to feed someone else
and maybe learn something along the way?
freericetrivia by the U.N.’s World Food Programme
Want to test your knowledge while helping end world hunger? freerice can make it happen. For every question you answer correctly in the trivia quiz, 10 grains of rice are donated to those in need. Since 2010, freerice has raised more than 214 billion grains of rice (equivalent to $1.5 million) for people around the world.
—
“poverty’s child – he starts to grind the rice, and gazes at the moon.”
-matuso basho
I didn't have my glasses on.... 