GRRRRR!

I don't know if the problem is we humans too often improperly compare ourselves to animals...or that we do not properly compare ourselves to animals in a most important regard.

At one time or another, we have been called a rat, an ape, a gorilla, a baboon, a laughing hyena, a jackass, a snake. We have been described as being "as sly as a fox", "as strong as an ox", "as wise as an owl", "as cool as a cat", "as busy as a beaver". We call ourselves "rational animals", "political animals", "tool-making animals", "the only animal that blushes, or needs to".

And, arguably, we are all of those things.

And, arguably, they indirectly reference our animal ancestry.

But, I wonder, do they subliminally lay the foundation for the belief that we are incapable of rising to a higher, more noble, more spiritual, way of life? Do they enhance or diminish our image of the human race, our self-esteem? Are we stuck in the moral mud, so to speak, with the pigs?

Or do we not go far enough? Do we fail to recognize that like our animal brethren...who are naturally and strikingly wonderfully programmed for survival, as witness the defiance of extinction by inch-long life forms through the millennia...we, too, have an exquisitely powerful nature that, though not programmed in us, can lift us to the highest reaches of human glory and grandeur if we but choose (choice being part of that nature) to abide by it. Are not feelings of sadness, regret, jealousy, anger, rage, anxiety, depression, etc., important positive, survival-helping features of that nature, to be understood and treated as such, rather than as mental or emotional disorders and diseases?

Ultimately, the standard for all proper human conduct is our nature...and it is there for us to see, to learn, to know. Our natural inquisitiveness has triggered our study of animals and how and why they behave the way they do. Time for us to study and master and teach what this animal is all about.