The question was raised, “If we were to be an animal for a week, which would it be?” I’ve run into this one before, and I’ve frequently wondered if the asker is so arrogant that they are among the bores who place humans off to one side and not part of the animal kingdom, or they are baiting us to see if we fall for this little fallacy. Either way, it can be taken as revealing much about the individual asking the question.
There is a price to be paid for denying the underlying animal nature of a human being. At the most basic level, there is the mechanism that propels us. It is undeniably animal, and we ignore that at great risk. Something will fail at some point.
Within the bounds of our underlying animal nature lies the real gift that goes with it. We can choose the sort of human animal we want to be. Unlike many in the animal kingdom, we have a wide selection of behaviors to choose from. Choose that of a bold explorer, contemplative mystic, satisfied crew member, raving madman, wise person, or fool. Gifted with relatively long life, we can choose or evolve into multiple roles as we live.
Choose, but choose wisely.
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Hands down the best read for today.
Only if the concerned individual could come up with an interesting prompt.
Thanks Kajal!
Meanwhile, Max, Sabrina and Marcus are mumbling to themselves…
Mumbling about revenge when we get home!
Yep — I had a similar thought when I saw that prompt. I was like, “Dude, I’m an animal. I’ll stick with this one.”
The one for tomorrow was picked from the same college freshman class.
No no no — that’s where RDP came from waaay back in the day. “We can’t do this any more!” 🤣
This is a bracing reframe — refusing the premise and pointing out that we never stopped being animals in the first place. I especially liked the pivot to the real gift: that unlike most creatures, we get to choose which kind of human animal to become, and can shift roles across a long life. “Choose, but choose wisely” is a fine note to land on — a more interesting answer than naming a species, honestly.
Thank You!