COMMAND PERFORMANCE – Americans’ Willing Servitude To Cameras

Smile! 

Thus begins every child's career as an actor.

It wasn’t always this way. Look at portraits and group shots from the early days of photography. Folks look as I suppose they must have felt at the time: not scowling, but certainly not smiling.

        

So how did we get from that norm to today’s camera culture where kids, many of them now adults, feel that whenever they see a lens they must not simply smile, but start acting?

Is a child hamming it up for the camera really big deal? Not if it were just a few children on a few occasions. But the fact that it’s virtually every child on every occasion says something troubling about our culture.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE
One reason for those stiff, old sepia-tone poses was that, until the turn of the 20th century, the technology of photography required subjects to stand perfectly still for as long as a minute. With the development of inexpensive, hand-held cameras and faster-exposure film, taking pictures became ever less formal, more spontaneous.     

PHOTO: China Daily

Fast-forward to the turn of the 21st century. With 
the wide availability of digital photography, not 
only did exposure times become insignificant, but snapshots began to lose their preciousness. One could afford to take a hundred shots and throw away 
ninety-nine.

So, if a parent didn’t like their child’s expression opening a Christmas present in one shot, they could coach a better look of delight in the next.

  They strike the pose of someone they want others 
  to think they are.

OH-H-H THE BOREDOM!
Besides parents’ prompting, kids learn photo-emoting through simple observation. They see their family and friends hamming it up for selfies. They see it in movies and on TV, where deadpan is death. 

And then, of course, there’s social media, where the last thing kids want is for their friends to see them not being cool and having fun. So they strike the pose of someone they want others to think they are. 

PHOTO: iStockPhoto

Next time you watch any live—or taped-live—TV show (SNL and the so-called talk shows come to mind) watch what hosts and guests do while they’re being introduced. They’ve obviously learned that inaction induces boredom. And boredom is the media’s kiss of death. 

So they animate. A little dance, engaging hand gestures, mugging it up for the camera. Always moving; always an engaging expression.

THE WORD ESCAPES ME
The penchant for performance even shows up in our use of language. Used to be, when folks quoted someone, they’d use that person’s words. If those words were especially colorful they might have attached some colorful modifiers to describe how they said those words. 

Then in the late 70s and early 80s, with the advent of the “me decade” and the Valley Girl craze, the words “He/she said...” gave way to “He/she goes…” And instead of describing how a person said something, the adjectives gave way to...
you guessed it, acting. Tell gave way to show.

         

           How have we become not just the 
           entertained, but the entertainers?

ALWAYS ON
These days nearly wherever we go, indoors our out, we’re on camera. Someone’s always watching: the police, security guards, Google Street View vehicles, folks monitoring their Ring doorbell camera. I fear this omnipresent scrutiny is making us feel self-conscious nearly all the time. Obliged, even subconsciously, to be putting on a show.

If we’re not there quite yet, we soon will be. The point where we can’t tell any more whether Jimmy’s or Jill’s expression reflects genuine emotion or just their performance for the “reality” show we’re all starting to accept as everyday life. 
(By the way, “reality show” must surely go down in history as the oxymoron of 
our age.) 

Some folks will do just about anything to be on TV. Including, like most of their reality show favorites, making utter fools of themselves. Is this just light-hearted fun, or does it augur an age in which human beings blithely trade their every real, God-given faculty for stuff that’s artificial—yes, including artificial “intelligence.”

       Maybe…they feel better seeing others 
       who are even more pathetic than they are.

MIRROR IMAGE 
We’ve become so inured of performance in our own lives that many of us now expect it from others. Most notably, in the election, by a large minority of Ameri-
cans, of a U.S. president who has mastered absolutely nothing…but performance.

IMAGE: Busy Beaver Button Museum

This shallow, soulless little man has, more than any public figure in my lifetime, blurred the distinction between fame and qualifica-
tion, performance and lying. He’s famous only for his fame. How sad, when one might expect honesty to be a key asset for a political leader, that so many Americans have chosen performers for that role.

We know this problem has been building for decades, since now we have senior citizens (Trump is prime example) who have never lived a millisecond of reality in their lives. No looks, no brains, no talent, no humanity… It’s all an act. Trump, if nothing else, has validated his followers’ preference of show over substance.

This is the kind of audience that’s made the Real Housewives conglomerate a billion-plus-dollar enterprise. Maybe it’s that their own lives are so miserable and they feel better seeing others who are even more pathetic than they are. Folks whose job, it seems, is a celebration of ignorance, selfishness and vulgarity. 

PHOTO: Kathy Boos / Bravo

              I don’t think I’d relinquish control 
              of my body and soul.

SPORTS PROGRAMMING 
When I watch TV sports I always cringe when the cameras swing around for shots of fans. It’s as if someone flipped the “On” switch on a bunch of robots. Folks suddenly forget cheering on their team, stop mid-sentence chatting with their seat mates, and start performing.

PHOTO: Val Montanez / The Kansan

You know the moves: the aggressive bobbing of the head; the impassioned “Yeah!;” the “We’re-number-one!” finger; the jersey grab-and-shake. It all happens on cue, as if scripted by TV sports producers. If you don’t emote on demand, the producer won’t cut to that camera. And there goes your audition for the big time. 

And then there’s the Jumbotron. Your mug appears up there and you don’t perform, expect to be ridiculed by thousands of your fellow fans.

PHOTO: KickinItWithCarly / TikTok

Really? Shouldn’t folks be devoting every second in those $150 seats to enjoying the game and the com-
pany of those around them, instead of letting that ESPN camera flick the switch on their fake,”reality show” selves? 

I wonder what I’d do if, God forbid, that should happen to me. I’d like to think I’d not change my behavior at all. Okay, maybe I’d nod or offer a little wave, but I don’t think I’d simply relinquish control of my body and soul. Or would I?

Would you? We'd love to hear what you think; leave a comment.

LABOR OF LOVE – Celebrating My 600th Post

Have you heard about the new twelve-step program for the habitually long-winded? Yeah, On-And-On...Anon.

Well, sometimes it feels like that's what I've been doing here at One Man's Wonder these past few years. I hope I've been picking my battles and choosing my words well enough so you don't agree.

FROM DUTY TO DEVOTION
It seems like just yesterday that I first stuck my toe into this blogging ocean. My first post, So This Ant Walks Into a Bar, got one comment.

At that time, I was grateful just for the support of my family and a few of my closest friends who—despite their shyness about leaving comments—dutifully came to see what Jeff's new diversion was all about.

    Six hundred posts, some 1,700,000 page views and 78 countries later, 
    I'm feeling pretty encouraged. I think I'll stick with it!

And speaking of encouragement, that, besides the sheer joy I find in the writing, is really what's kept me going—from those requisite visits of loved ones, to the small leaps of faith made by my followers, to all the "lurkers" who tell me they follow me anonymously, to the cherished relationships I've formed with fellow bloggers, authors and other kindred spirits. This online community is amazingly generous and kind-spirited.

Thank you, everyone! I'll make you a deal: You keep checking in at One Man's Wonder, leave me a comment when the spirit moves you, and share your favorite posts with others; I redouble my efforts to keep posting reflections and inspiration worthy of your interest.  Deal?

IMMISCIBLE EVIDENCE – Wonders of the Air/Water Interface

Two elements: air and water. At first glance, they seem about as different as they could be. They’re entirely different states of matter, after all. Even so, consider the surprising number of similarities:

     • They’re both classical elements—those believed by ancient Greek, Indian and 
        other cultures to constitute all matter in the universe.

PHOTO: CK-12.org

     • Neither has a fixed shape.
     • Both flow.
     • Both are subject to gravity.* 
     • Each is rendered visible just by the stuff 
        it carries, and by certain kinds of light.
     • Both are vital for life.
     • Each infuses the other.** 
     • Both suffocate denizens of the other.
     • Both refract light.***
     • Both acquire new properties when heat-
        ed or cooled—including changing state.****
     • Each, unless contained, spreads to fill whatever space gravity compels it to.
     • Both are harmed by abuse from the only creature capable of destroying them.   
          The fascination comes down 
          to part science, part magic.

So…if water and air are so similar, why is the interface between them—think the surfaces of lakes, streams or oceans, of raindrops, of the glass of water on my desk—so complex, so fascinating?

A decent answer would require volumes. But, at least to this inexpert witness to wonder, it comes down to part science, part magic. 

ILLUSTRATION: ConceptVis.app

THE SCIENCE
The first and perhaps most obvious impact of this air/water junction is their interaction’s generation of weather and climate. You know, evaporation, conden-
sation, precipitation…and repeat. But there’s more 
than that going on.

Turns out the water cycle melds with a carbon cycle, which finds carbon dioxide at the water surface—defined as a one- to two-nanometer membrane—transforming into bicarbonate and carbonate ions. †

GRAPHIC: Journal of Physical Chemistry

Atmospheric scientists have also found that these ion-to-ion interactions become "stickier" near the air-water interface, resulting in proteins unfolding, aggregating, or assembling into significantly different structures. ††

The compendium of scientific findings continues with a list of mind-boggling processes like peptide synthesis, phosphorylation, oligomerization, colloid mobilization, protein unfolding or aggregation †††…I’ll spare you the rest.

     To unlock the mystical properties...it took 
     a ten-year-old with a cane fishing pole.

ILLUSTRATION: Norman Rockwell

THE MAGIC
It took lots of science and technology to discover those arcane properties. To unlock the mystical properties of the air-water interface, though, it 
took a ten-year-old with a cane fishing pole.

I’d throw an angleworm deep into the lake, this hidden, alien world, connected by a thin filament held between my fingers. Then I’d wait. If there was life down there in that cold, dark, liquid place, it eventually sent me a message through the fiber. 
If I was lucky I’d get to meet the sender. ‡

That cryptic contact seemed to me no less otherworldly than receiving a faint message from deep space.

PHOTO: Warner Brothers

     What other substance can…bathe an 
     infant’s head and carve the Grand Canyon?

ICEBERG IN MY COFFEE
As this insight might suggest, when it comes to air and water, I’m partial to water. For one thing, I spent nine months submerged in it just before I was a kid. 

For another, air seems almost too easy to take for granted—except, I suppose, when one’s flying…or suffocating. I mean which wakes you up faster, a cool breeze or a splash of cold H2O? 

I love the capricious relationship water has with other elements. With light, it can bend it like a prism, absorb it like a sponge or reflect it like a mirror. Percolating into soil, water provides the nectar of life for nearly 300,000 species of plants. 

ILLUSTRATION: FreePic

What other substance can both render a Winslow Homer masterpiece and torture a suspected terrorist? Transform itself into the exquisite intricacy of a snowflake and the Titanic mass of an iceberg? Bathe an infant’s head…and carve the Grand Canyon?

PHOTO: FreePic

While I realize the Law of Conservation of Matter holds for all the elements, I’m especially captivated by how it applies to water. For example, the possibility that a molecule of water melted from that iceberg that sank the Titanic might reside, for now, in the coffee I’m sipping.

THICK WATER
As with most of my musings here, digging up answers about the seam between water and air also uncovers more questions:

     • Is a splash caused by something falling into the water the obverse of that 
       caused by something like a fish jumping out? 
     • If water can vanish into thin air, could one say that air—also absorbable by 
       its counterpart vanishes into thick water?
     • Why does water as a mist cool us, while as humidity it makes us feel hotter?
     • When we refer to the surface of a lake, isn’t it just as true to call it the sur-
       face of the air above the lake?
     • Is the only difference between swimming and flying the speed at which you 
       can do it? 

IMAGE: Medium.com

When you let loose your child-like sense of wonder, what do you notice about air, water and their interaction? I and the couple of thousand people who stop by here every day would love to hear your thoughts! Just click on the “comments” link below.

* Because air has mass, it is attracted by Earth's gravity, which gives it weight and creates atmospheric pressure. Gravity keeps the atmosphere from drifting into space and pulls air towards the ground, making it denser at lower altitudes. 
Google AI Overview

** Air absorbs water vapor (humidity) from liquid water (evaporation), with warmer air holding much more, while water absorbs gases like oxygen from the air (dissolving), a process enhanced by surface area and turbulence, both crucial for the water cycle and aquatic life  –  Google AI

*** Air bends (refracts) light just as water does, though generally to a much lesser degree. Both media bend light due to changes in speed caused by density differences, a process called refraction. Air bends light significantly when there are sharp density changes, such as that of hot air above pavement (the cause of mirages). 

**** Air freezes solid, but only at –362 degrees Fahrenheit at standard atmospheric pressure. This, of course, is not possible in our planet’s natural conditions, but it’s commonly seen in scientific and industrial labs. – Google AI

† Jin Qian, Staff Scientist, Chemical Sciences Division, Berkeley Lab.

†† "The Promise and Intrigue of Where Water Meets Air" – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 
June 5, 2014

††† “Colloid mobilization and transport in groundwater”
Joseph N. Ryan and Menachen Elimelech – ScienceDirect.com

‡ Over the past few years, the wonder of communicating with fish has tarnished considerably as I’ve realized that those “cryptic” tugs and jumps, which since childhood have felt like fun, are no such thing for the fish. I now believe I have no right to enjoy the pain and terror of another of God’s creatures.

SEASON'S GREETINGS!

I wish all my visitors and loyal followers from all over the world—more than 80 countries—the very best of this season. For us Christians, that means MERRY CHRISTMAS! (para mis hispanohablantes amigos, ¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!) For my Jewish friends, it's HAPPY HANUKKAH! For all of us here in the northern hemisphere, HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE! 

Here's to longer, brighter days. To kinder, gentler care for each other and our precious planet. To noticing and celebrating small wonders!

Whatever your celebration, may these days be kind to you, your families and your loved ones. May they bring you new awareness, wonder and gratitude!

HOMELESS FOR THE HOLIDAYS – The Woe of Nowhere To Go

Last night, while driving home from my men's group, I noticed a young man standing alone in a bus shelter. It was the motion that caught my eye. Rocking back and forth, hugging himself in a flimsy, white blanket, his breath made clouds in the 20-degree air.  

I’m guessing he had nothing on under the blanket but pants, a shirt, maybe a very light jacket. The shelter was quite dark, so I don’t think the infrared heaters were working. 

AN ILL-FITTING GARMENT
I often wonder about strangers, especially when they’re alone—who they are, what they’re doing, what’s their story. But for some reason, in this fellow’s case the question that struck me was, Where are you going?

Are you on your way home? Going to see a friend? Off to your night shift? I probably shouldn’t read too much into such details, but somehow the blanket feels like a poignant answer to those questions. A garment less chosen than scrounged. 

PHOTO: Lily Fulop

What if, I asked myself, you’re homeless? What if all your family bridges have burned? What if the next bus provides the only shelter you’re going to find tonight? Do you even have the fare?

And, again, that insistent question: Where will you get off?

              How easily we take for granted 
              our destinations in life.

DESTINATION: SURVIVAL 
The young man drew just a passing glance, but he’s been on my mind ever since. It’s not just curiosity and compassion, but also sadness. For, even if my reckoning on his particular plight is misplaced, I know there are countless others tonight for whom it would not be.

How easily we take for granted our destinations in life. Appointments, a job, social occasions… Even if our engagement’s with no one but a favorite place, we’re very seldom without an aim in our comings and goings.

PHOTO: Kidstuff Counseling

But when the notion of belonging somewhere lies beyond reach, do you think a person’s idea of “destination” might change from one of place to one of time? How long can I stay on this warm bus? When will they kick me out? 

For some—like perhaps this young man—the aim is simply survival. Can I make it till morning?

        I’ve decided there must be some purpose, 
        some intent, in my having noticed him.

CAUSES, EFFECTS, REMEDIES  
I used the same excuses most of us would for not stopping and just asking the kid these questions, maybe helping him out. Instead, I weigh his fortunes from afar, from a world of warmth and belonging.

Nonetheless, I’ve decided, there must be some purpose, some intent, in my simply having noticed him. And, yes, in contemplating the causes, effects and remedies for homelessness and its attendant ills.

In 2024, it’s estimated that .23 percent of Americans—roughly 770,000 of us—
experienced homelessness.* 

To be honest, I don’t think I’ll be out anytime soon looking to engage, face to face, folks like this young man who look displaced. But I am moved to find and start supporting an organi- 
zation that provides effective, reliable “housing first” services and programs here in Minneapolis. 

Among those I’m considering: Avivo Village—which provides indoor communities of “tiny houses; People Serving People—focusing on keeping people in their existing homes; or the United Way—which engages citizens, businesses and organizations in combating homelessness. 

Just imagine how it might feel if, especially during this busy, destination-rich holiday season, you had nowhere to go, nowhere to be. I hope that, like me, you’re moved to help our fellow citizens—like my White-blanket Man—whose home might very well exist only in their dreams.

* National Alliance To End Homelessness 

OH DEER! – Harvest Or Holocaust?

I just read an article about this year’s white-tail deer-hunting “harvest” here in Minnesota. And it’s got me thinking. 

For years I’ve wondered whether hunting—or for that matter fishing, which I love—are even morally defensible for one who sees himself an evolving human being. But I’ll leave that concern for another time. For now, let’s just say I wonder if most people realize the astounding number of deer dying at human hands.

When I was a boy, I read—probably in either Boys Life or Ripley’s Believe It Or Not—that in Pennsylvania alone over 30,000 deer died that year just being hit by cars! That’s when I first became aware of the sheer number of deer that must live in our fields and forests in order for that mortality rate to not completely decimate the population. 

PHOTO: Maciej Bledowski / Adobe Stock

So this latest article renewed my fascination with cervine mortality. It’s led me to both revisit those roadkill stats and add to the mix deaths exacted by hunters. Here are some of the recent statistics: 

Here in Minnesota, the number of deer-vehicle-collisions in 2024—virtually all resulting in the animals’ deaths—was estimated at around 40,000.*

And the Minnesota hunting toll? Somewhere around 171,000.** In one year. In one state. And Minnesota is far from the deadliest place for deer. In Pennsylvania, the body count was an astounding 476,000.***

PHOTO: Deer + Deer Hunting

    Some 6,000,000 deer die annually at the hands 
    of hunters. That’s a venison Whopper of 
    nearly a billion pounds.

IMAGE: Shutterstock

FLESHING OUT THE STATS 
To grasp that number, imagine a sold-out crowd of Philadelphia Eagles fans packed into Lincoln Financial Field—around 70,000 people. Now, let's imagine swap-
ping out every one of those human beings for a white-tail doe or buck.

Now shoot and kill them. All of them.

Next, haul out and truck away all those carcasses and in-
vite 70,000 more deer to the stands. And kill them too.

PHOTO: KUAM News

Repeat this turnover six-and-a-half times. 

Or, let’s look at it another way: by weight. The average deer weights about 150 pounds. So that 2024 Pennsylvania hunting season delivered a bit over 71,000,000 pounds of venison, hide and bone. (This begs the question, doesn’t it: how much of that meat was actually consumed by the hunters?)

PHOTO: Peak to Plate

Again, this is just Pennsylvania. In the whole country some 6,000,000 deer die annually at the hands of hunters.**** That’s a venison Whopper of nearly a billion pounds.

For further perspective, consider that human murders in the U.S in 2024 (according to the FBI) totaled about 17,000. U.S. human deaths the same year from all causes: around 3,000,000. 

How we can cull such numbers of these beautiful woodland animals year after year and still see well over a hundred times as many of them in the U.S. as there were a century ago?***** (In fact, many now see deer as pests, an invasive species.)

There are several factors: wildlife management practices; adaptation to changing habitats and conditions; and the decline and/or relocation of the species' natural predators. I guess thinning the herd by 6,000,000 doesn't make much of a dent when that leaves 30,000,000 of them, all breeding faster than we can kill them.

       Ultimately, it comes down to us human 
       beings’ troubled membership in Earth’s 
       family of sentient beings. 

INFORMED BRUTALITY
For me, one takeaway from my research is to recall that admonition we always hear from our vegan friends—and others promoting thoughtful consumption—that we should all know the brutal facts about where our meat comes from.

PHOTO: USDA

(Believe it or not, one of the standard field trips for Linwood Park School, my elementary school, was a visit to the meat-packing plants of South St. Paul. There we did, indeed, witness the live animals conveyed into the abattoir and the carcasses conveyed out; the awful cacophony of machinery and the animals’ desperate bleating; gutters coursing with still-warm blood.)

Another much broader effect might be to ask ourselves if we take too much of life—especially non-human life—for granted. As a species arguably well on our way to destroying our precious planet, we persist in such hubris at our own peril.

Again, my point is not to impugn hunting, fishing or consuming animal protein. After all, many of us were compelled by our native environments to be carnivores. 

But we were also destined to evolve. 

So let's be thoughtful, my friends. Let us first appreciate the vastness of our planet, the sheer numbers of our fellow organisms—like deer—with whom we share it.

Let's learn to be more aware of our tenuous membership in Earth’s family of sentient beings. Understand the life-and-death consequences of everything we do. And recognize the manifest oneness of Creation.

PHOTO: Whitetail Deer

                                    
* University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies
** Minnesota Department of Natural Resources 
*** Pennsylvania Game Commission
**** National Deer Association 

THERE YOU ARE! – Making Eye Contact With Nature

Last week, I started writing a post about the wonders of making eye contact with Nature. Specifically, about a remarkable interaction I’d had with two beavers while I was canoeing a backwater of the beautiful St. Croix River. I’d been struck by their sustained gaze as they swam, as if on a 30-foot tether, in a perfect arc around me.

This evening, while still working on that piece, I took a break and went out to sit on our deck with our sweet little mini-schnauzer, Sylvia…and a margarita. And over the next twenty minutes, a little drama played out that convinced me those beavers could no longer be my lead. 

             It’s hard to discern emotion in 
             eyes half the size of apple seeds.

PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

GOT NECTAR?
This whole summer, Sally and I have seen very little of our ruby-throated hummingbirds. In fact, we’d thought there was just one—a female. But then, just a few weeks ago, a tiny newcomer shows up at the feeder. (We still haven’t seen Papa.) And, sadly, whenever either Sally or I have been out there on the deck both mom and baby have made themselves scarce.

As the inevitable day of their migration south approaches, we’re treasuring every sighting of these precious little beings, albeit through the window.

So, here I am, sitting on the deck. I’ve cranked open our big red umbrella, Sylvie’s lying in my lap, and a little chill music is playing. We’re right behind the curtain of purple petunias and white bacopa trailing from our railing boxes. Just on the other side, where I can’t see it, is our hummingbird feeder—filled with nectar I refreshed just this morning.

All of a sudden I catch that inimitable flitting-then-hovering hummer motion out of the corner of my eye. One must have landed at the feeder. 

Then, suddenly, just between the balusters of the deck railing, no more than three feet from us, here’s the mama, hovering, looking right at us. She’s so close I can hear her hum.

PHOTO: alandrapal / The Lens Flare

First, she suspends in front of Sylvie’s nose for a few seconds; then she flits up to my level and stares right into my eyes. Then, as if that weren’t enchanting enough, the baby appears and, while mom backs off, does the same.

It’s hard to discern intent or emotion in eyes half the size of apple seeds, but I believe it’s there. Maybe it’s gratitude—like “Hey, thanks for the yummy sugar water”—but you know, I’ll settle for curiosity just slightly eclipsing caution. In any case, I’m absolutely smitten.

       I’m locked eye-to-eye with a 40-ton whale!

A FLUKE OF NATURE?
Moving from one end of the critter-size spectrum to the other, I’ve had this very same transcendent experience with a whale. (An adult female gray whale weighs roughly 12,000,000 times more than that hummingbird that locked eyes with me on the deck.)

Sally and I had sailed from San Diego down the Pacific coast toward Cabo San Lucas and the Sea of Cortez aboard the 95-foot natural history cruise boat, the Searcher. Along the way, we stopped to spend a couple of days in Laguna San Ignacio, where scores of Pacific gray whale cows tend and teach their calves for a while each spring. 

There, in the wild, of their own accord—and for no tangible reward—50-foot Pacific gray whale cows swim under their 15- to 20-foot calves, gently lifting and nudging them toward our little ten-person rowboats and our outstretched hands. The babies seem to love the attention, gently bumping the boat and even opening their mouths so we can scratch their baleen (the keratin filters they use to strain krill and other food from the water).

After presenting her calf to me, one mama whale backs off a few yards where she raises her head out of the water and watches me warily. That’s right, I’m locked eye-to-eye with a 40-ton whale!

I remember so vividly the enormity, the depth…the magic of that experience. And hoping that whatever that whale saw in my eyes reciprocated the respect and trust I was reading in hers.

           Do wild animals immediately spot 
           these two tiny blue orbs in my face?

SEEING GENEROUSLY

Between those two extremes of animal size, I’ve had numerous other close encounters with the eyes of wild creatures: eagles, deer, coyotes, muskrats, herons, and even fish. Just this week, it was those beavers circling my canoe, their eyes fixed on mine.

What’s going through animals’ heads as they lock stares with me? Do they recognize me as another animal? And how do they know? Is it the eyes? Do wild animals immediately spot these two tiny blue orbs in my face? Can they read other creatures’ eyes anywhere near as well as domestic dogs have learned to read ours? 

I wonder if these and other critters might exemplify a concept I’ve often written about in these pages: seeing generously. The beneficence would be my eyes conveying peace, understanding, perhaps some form of love. Then, if that vibe somehow allows an animal to experience those same sensibilities, that means the gift’s been received. 

Might this explain why these creatures I commune with don’t see me as a threat?

ILLUSTRATION: Thomas Wolter, Pixabay

IS IT SPIRITUAL?
Our eyes—human eyes—have been celebrated in literature and film as windows to our souls. Perhaps wild animals, too, know how to look into that window. After all, we know they possess sensory faculties we humans—at least those of us no longer living in the wild—have long ago lost to evolution.

Whatever that reading, do you think it’s based on merely an exchange of information, or might there be more to the transaction? Might my connection with these, my fellow creatures, exceed the reach of the conventional senses and border on the spiritual? 

I think it does, and it’s rare indeed. 

It’s only when both the critter and the human decide—or, perhaps more accurately, allow themselves—to see the other’s aura that the magical connection is made. Today that happened for me with those little hummingbirds.

What they see in my eyes—I hope—most certainly is a kind of love.

OR IS IT LOVE?
One of the high points of any day for me is sustained eye contact with our dog. Sweet little Sylvia nestles in the furrow between my left thigh and the arm of my Lazy Boy. Once in a while she’ll turn her head up toward me and just stare into my eyes. It’s magical. 

Of course, I can’t tell you exactly what Sylvie sees in my eyes, but I know what I see in hers. She shows me a range of emotions: fear, excitement, shame. But the expression that touches my heart most profoundly is hard to describe. I guess it’s just pure, sweet love. 

With my inter-species encounters in Nature, I can’t say I read such love in the eyes of wild animals. That's as it should be, I suppose. I do see caution, naturally. And curiosity. Occasionally playfulness. But what they see in my eyes—at least I hope—most certainly is a kind of love. 

SEEING THE BEING
I’ve experienced the enchantment of eye contact with many creatures. In fact, I occasionally offer the same gift of seeing generously to other, inanimate faces of Nature, like trees…or even still-more-inscrutable ones like rocks and clouds. 

It’s not that I pretend these faces have eyes, but I do believe they have being. And the fact that we share that condition makes us kin. Makes them, I believe, worthy of my seeing.

How do you experience the wonder of eye contact with Nature? Is there one animal, one occasion in which you've felt the most profound connection? Do you see even inanimate elements of Nature with that same generosity of spirit? We’d love to hear about it in the comments!

THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE – Hearing Nature In the City

Only once before in the 15 years we’ve lived here in Minneapolis’s Prospect Park had I experienced such quiet. It was late May, 2020, right after George Floyd was killed, and they closed the freeways as a security measure while protests surged.

This time, it’s because they’ve closed I-94 in both directions this weekend for construction.

Sally and I knew, when we bought our townhouse right next to the interstate, that we’d live with the constant hiss of tire treads on pavement. We made light of it, pretending it was the surf—just like in our favorite Mexican Pacific beach town.

In the city one gets used to things like that. But I, as one committed to noticing and celebrating life’s small wonders, have been acutely aware of what I couldn’t hear through all that traffic noise: the sweet, subtle sounds of Nature.

SOFT-SPOKEN BIRDS 
Usually, Nature’s soundscape around our house is like splashes of translucent watercolor thrown on drab, grey paper, the hues all but swallowed by the dim background. But back in May, 2020, and again today, the paper is once again pure white; the colors, vivid. 

IMAGE: Vecteezy

PHOTO: Nat'l Audubon Society

Most days it takes the raucous scolding of the blue jays to penetrate the veil, but today I’m catching the subtler notes of sparrows and 
house finches. In fact, I hear dozens of bird voices from all over our block. 

Today, pleasant summery music wafts to my 
ear from someone’s patio over on East River Terrace. Today I hear the cadence of my own footsteps.

       The deafening hush was rent by the eerie 
       wailing of wolves just across the bay.

A SILENT ROAR 
Silence is, indeed, a rare and precious gift. But is what we believe to be silence really silent? I’ve found that it isn’t. Nearly always there’s at least a murmur of sound—an airplane high overhead, a whisper of wind through pines, the indistinct hum every city produces from vehicles, air conditioners, people…whatever—to sort of anchor your hearing. 

And if you’ve ever experienced true silence, the kind that might envelop you in the wilderness, it can be unnerving. It is, as they say, deafening. 

PHOTO: Save the Boundary Waters

I experienced that kind of stillness at night on a solo canoe trip in northern Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. My brain had a hard time processing that profound absence of sound, manifesting a kind of roaring sensation as if in protest of the depravation. (One early morning, that deafening hush was rent by the haunting wail of wolves just across the bay.)

         It may take a bit more focus sifting out 
         those subtler notes.

HEAVY METAL BANNED
Silence—at least occasionally—is good for us. Not just us introverts, but everyone. A 2021 article in Healthline details eight distinct physical and mental health benefits. Many other studies agree.

So I urge you, if you can, to get out of town for a while to a place where the voices of Nature can land as bright brush strokes on that pure white paper of silence.  

PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

And even when we’re in the city, let’s make a special effort to discern the natural sounds hiding in plain hearing all around us. It may take a bit more focus sifting out those subtler notes from the “heavy metal” of urban noise, but its proven health benefits—not to mention the equally-well-proven spiritual lift—make it well worthwhile.

Have any tips or tricks for better hearing and appreciating Nature’s sounds? We’d love to hear them! Just jot a comment using the “comments” link below.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! – They Can't Take Away Wonder!

These long summer holiday weekends, it's easy to lose sight of what the occasion's really all about. Sure, the Fourth is about fun. After all, it's a celebration, a cherished opportunity to spend a few of these long, languid days just being outdoors, having fun with people we love, and eating our way into a long nap in a hammock.

But the fourth is also a time for gratitude—an appreciation of living in this great, fiercely independent nation whose liberty was hard won two-and-a-half centuries ago. I try never to lose sight of this, even though that liberty is awfully easy to take for granted, since it's only rarely been challenged since—and even more rarely on our own soil.*

The Fourth of July also has come to represent a passage into summer, especially for those of us living in northern climes. (I think we can be fairly sure it won't snow now!) So let's be aware of all those little wonders that make this season such a blessing.

Here are just a few of the small wonders I plan to notice and appreciate as if I were experiencing them for the very first time:

• The way kernels of fresh sweet corn pop as my teeth plow through them
• The pulsing sizzle of a hot meadow teeming with life
• How my skin smells toasted in sunny, sultry air

 

• The pink crystalline coolness of watermelon chilled in the creek
• The misty echo up and down the river valley of a big aerial bomb's boom

• Water – that amazing clear, cool, flowing substance that both sustains and entertains

• A bluegill's arresting colors and texture and spiny dorsal fin
• The magical, winking syncopation of firefly glow with cricket chirp
• The sweet, evocative smell of freshly mown grass
• The faces of my grandchildren as they too experience wonder
  
  

 

What little wonders will you be 
ready to embrace this Fourth of 
July weekend?


 

* It saddens me to note the deeply troubling undercurrent to this year's otherwise joyous celebration of Independence Day. Never in my long life have I been as deeply concerned about the state of my country. 
    We've elected—for the second time—a shallow, narcissistic, vengeful, willfully ignorant reality-show host as president. His yes-men appointees, as well as his sycophantic loyalists in both houses of Congress seem hell-bent on turning the nation's back on our responsibilities—not just to the rest of the world, but to the poorest, most vulnerable of our own countrymen. We are the laughing stock of the world.
    Instead of America's trademark optimism, drive and inspired leadership, we've retreated into a cowardly shell of fear, enabling shameless opportunism by a visionless, doom-and-gloom ruling oligarchy. 
    It is nothing less than an assault on our country's founding principles and on much of the hard-won cultural evolution we've achieved during my lifetime.