Predicting Fears

After cutting the lawn, I ventured into the garden to do some weeding and then again with the camera to see what I could see - and I came across this dishevelled bee sitting on the garden hose collecting its thoughts. It wasn't longed for the world by the looks of it, unable to fly with crinkled wings, it seemed to have accepted its fate, and was just waiting for the end to arrive.

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Of course, I have no idea what was actually going through its head, but my own head created a narrative, assigning human traits to a creature that experiences the world in a way completely different than I do. Yet it does make me wonder if all living things have just enough consciousness to deliberate on its own death. It might not be with such a long view or with as much depth as a human, but is there even the recognition that death is close, or are animals blissfully unaware that they will be no more.

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They feel fear.

And fear is always future based.

Even while falling off a cliff, the fear is based on the soon to occur hot, not the falling itself. I can't think of a fear that isn't future based. Even the fears triggered by past events, are tied to some future possibility, like a potential repetition of the past. So when an animal is running away in fear from a predator, is it purely instinctual, or is there also a sense of "I might die" running through the head simultaneously?

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There are two baby pigeons nesting in one of our apple trees, hidden amongst the vine that grows through it. They are not yet ready to fly, but by the looks of them, it shan't be too long before they leave the relative safety of the nest and venture out into their world. The same world as our own, but lived from a very different angle.

Perspective matters.

And while animals might not be able to change their own perspectives, humans are able to adjust theirs. We have the ability to reimagine our environment and what it means. We can do more than just assign human traits to animals, we can also redefine meanings to what we might have made earlier. After all, we are likely carrying a massive amount of opinion from our childhoods, when we didn't have the experience or insight to actually create an informed position, so perhaps a review is in order at least.

Of course, nothing forces us to improve ourselves, it is up to us. As a result, our default setting to "stay safe" is how most of us live the majority of our lives and often, our fears and opinions are based on a tiny sample of our experience. So, rather than being in the uncomfortable position of doing things differently, where we fear the failures and judgements from others, we make up excuses why it is better for us to stay with what we know. But maybe the limiting labels we apply to ourselves, are not a good fit for us at all.

And still we claim them as who we are.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

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