Do You Ever Wonder?

Do you ever wonder why you can't help but stare lovingly at kitten videos, goat photos, or your sleeping dog? I spent more time in the sheep and goat building at the Sandwich Fair last weekend than I have spent doing most anything of late. Comfort, humor, adorableness, lack-of-stress, lack-of-judgment, all realized while in the company of those who could not speak to me in the ways in which we humans speak to each other. Those who cannot argue, those who cannot scare us with the onslaught of Ebola scare tactics, those who cannot tell us what we should not do. But they do speak. And they speak of our beginnings and of that which we are in need of reconnecting with.

Pet supply aisles are nearly as prolific as human supply aisles in the 'Big Box' stores. In a TIME magazine, 2009 article titled, "Do We Love Our Dogs More Than People?", journalist Claire Suddath said, "In the last 15 years, the amount of money spent on pets in the U.S. jumped from $17 billion to $43 billion." There are theories, like some which Suddath uncovered, that suggest that our increase in extended work days, or our lack of in-person human connection, have brought us to treasure, more than ever before, the company of pets. 

I think there is more to it. Not unlike the movement for smaller homes and a surge to a more simplistic lifestyle and minimalism, I believe the noise of our lives is driving us to reconnect with that which is uncomplicated. We need to feel the earth, to connect with primal urges within us. The chaos of our lives is driving us to retreat from the "advances" and return to our beginnings. To a place where life makes sense. To reconnect with those beings who are not trying to be anything but who they are. 

And most humans continue to believe we are 'above' those we call "animals". But are we? When staring at this tiny goat, happily eating hay, I felt her contentment.