Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Hot Summer Afternoons and Chimps


This afternoon I'm sitting in a quaint coffee shop in Chattanooga's "Bluff View Art District." Sounds pretty schwank eh? Well it is. I'm waiting to meet a friend to talk about Student Venture. I enjoy meeting and sharing with folks what I'm up to, but if you're like me mid-afternoon can be one of your least productive times.

There is something about mid-afternoons in the summer that just make me want to check out for a few hours, turn the old brain off and snooze until the cooler hours descend. Siestas are something that I think our culture needs to adopt. What would the US look like if we all pulled out pillows and just nodded off into dreamland from 1-3PM? Would we have less drugs, violence and cell-phone talkers? Possibly.

I don't know, maybe I'm lethargic by nature. Maybe in the dawn of my creation, God was wondering whether to make me a slug or to make me a human. Perhaps I have a little of the slug in me, a slice of their nature that sings in the sweet Simon and Garfunkle duet, "Slow down you move to fast, you've got to make the moment last. Just a-skipping along the cobble stones, do and do-do feeling groovy."

Wow, lyrics sound funny when you write them out. It's like without the music, they sound like they were written by monkeys! Well maybe not monkeys, but if monkeys wrote, surely they'd write lyrics like these.

And while I'm on to the subject of monkeys, I think they're always napping. Have you heard that pound-for-pound they are 4 times as strong as humans (I need to google-check this)? But whenever I see monkeys (which is all the time of course) they are napping. They've totally bought into this nap thing, paw over fist.

On hot afternoons like this I covet the life of a monkey, even if it means flinging the occasional poop and sitting in a hot cage. At least they get to nap whenever they feel like it. The chimps are especially good at this, it must be a source of pride. I've seen them down at Chattanooga Zoo, just sitting in the shade and nodding off. They seem so content. Just happy to be. Maybe the fact that people "oh" and "ah" over them has gone to their little chimp brains. Or maybe they're mystics, deeply contemplating the intricacies of the universe, meditating and sleeping in perfect trust and peace. Sounds good doesn't it?

Well, I better get back to doing something "productive."

3 comments:

Taylor said...

Well done. I've always maintained that any first blog should contain at least a section devoted to reflecting on the mindset of monkeys, specifically chimpanzees, which appropriately you have done. I am confident as you continue to blog we will gain more insight into the thought processes of an under-evolved primate. (Forgive me, I also believe that the first comment on someone's first blog should be insulting). Keep them coming!

Ron Lowe said...

Is it a sin to serve a cup of coffee to a monkey? I heard that teaching one to smoke a cigarette is inhumane, but I wasn't sure about coffee. Thanks.

Philip said...

I don't think it's a sin. In fact, the monkey would probably greatly appreciate it. And who are we to say it's inhumane to give a monkey a cigarette? They should have rights too. I should get on to this!