i wonder if animals get jealous of other animals – like, inter-species-ly. like, do hawks fly over hippos and wish they could take mud baths too, meanwhile those hippos looking up at the hawk and wishing they could also have transparent eyelids? i ask this as beau, my neighbor’s labrador has been strutting around the courtyard like it was just any other friday. any other FRIYAY. grinning from side to side, tail perpetually wagging, like if he could speak he would say “i’m immune, bitches!! wait, why is everyone so bummed?” and i’m jealous, maybe for the first time, that this animal has the ability to not understand what the hell is going on, and is just fine.
okay, it’s not fair or accurate to say that just because other species are unaware of the pandemic that they don’t know what the hell is going on. actually, maybe everything knows exactly what’s going on, except for humans. it seems that, in the evolution of humans becoming the most #intelligent species on the planet – we’ve learned how to create equations to explain the expansion of the universe, build telescopes to see distant stars up close, concoct medicines for some of the mildest and most serious ailments, name a bunch of species around us – yet, in comparison to all of these other species, we don’t really know what the hell is going on, like, ever.
is it at least fair to say that technology is whatever humans make when they don’t know what the hell is going on, and make up something to try to fix it? can we call that the “fuck this” moment? like, when someone was trying to get somewhere on foot and was like “fuck this walking” and invented a wheel? or when someone was trying to crack open a walnut with their knuckles and was like “fuck this pounding” and invented a hammer? i’m asking because sometimes on instagram this ad shows up for an app that will get someone to pick up your laundry from your house, wash and fold it, and deliver it back to you. i didn’t spend much time on the post because i didn’t want the algorithm to know that i noticed, but i imagine the creator of that app has an origin story that amounts to him doing his own laundry one day and saying “fuck this putting my own underwear in a machine and pushing a button.”
okay, i’m feeling a little salty about humans today, and technology too (i’m also downplaying the actual struggle that is walking your dirty clothes to the laundromat in the middle of winter in brooklyn, which i lived through before, and fuck that). i’m trying to conjure the feeling of actual happiness that i have for all the plants and animals and air molecules that are doing so much better these days because of what’s going on. those who are prancing around, thriving at the expense of what’s happening to humans right now. and then i’m recalling how humans have been doing that – are still doing that – at the expense everything else on this planet. all these other beings don’t get to invent their way out of their situations, they just grit through it, and it’s not passiveness, it’s just life.
i guess i do know that animals can get jealous at other animals – like, inter-species-ly – by the way beau stares and groans when i’m eating a sandwich. lately, i just want to say “oh you want this sandwich? i’ll trade your immunity for it.” which i know is a stupid response, and would also be kind of fucked up if i traded anyone a sandwich for their immunity, and that would be me taking advantage of another animal for not understanding the notion of fair trade. i’ve gone way off on a tangent. what i’m saying is that i’ve thought about it and i’m still at peace with being a human, including my very human tendency to look at this dog enjoying his day, and get a little annoyed by his joy.