Laughing...a short history

Playing and laughing are the oldest emotional signals we give to each other. They tell the other person that we are not being aggressive that this is just for fun and not meant to be harmful. Laughter as we know it today is a social experience.

But back in the day laughter and humor were considered morally and physically dangerous. There were long treatises on the history of those opposed to laughter and its inherent dangers. There is even a word known as misegolast that means laughter hater.

During Plato, Aristotle and the Bibles time the philosophical examination of laughter and humor gave rise to the idea that laughter was an expression of superiority over other people. The idea was that it could be malicious, that laughing was somehow an expression of mockery, hostility or scorn. That laughter left the person overpowered by a lack of self control. Plato said that when we laughed we were taking delight in something evil.

Not until the 20^th century did philosopher's question the Superiority Theory. Up until then Christian leader's had encouraged their flocks to maintain a certain decorum of self control to endeavor to replace bouts of laughter with moderate behavior. Parishioners were to do nothing that would result in boisterous laughter or foolish chatter. The Puritans were the worst when it came to laughter for you could never loose control. In the 17^th century when they came to England they outlawed comedies.

But laughter is primitive, babies do it sometimes more than 300 times a day compared to an average adult at 20 times. One article i read said that if you laughed 100 times it was equal to rowing for 10 minutes or biking for 15 minutes. All human beings, no matter what language you speak or where you live laugh, even those born deaf and blind.

Laughter is used to defuse tense situations and can signal that you are part of a group. It makes you feel good even when you loose control. Today laughter is considered a healthy alternative to medicine, it diminishes pain, adds joy to your life and can protect you from stress. These are at complete odds with the idea that laughter should be tempered.

Having studied Anthropology and reading more about humor and laughter i tend to speculate that it might have been beneficial to mankind to use laughter in play to teach aggression without physically harming the student. It was probably used to teach hunting and fighting skills in a safe environment.  i think laughter evolved as a play signal between humans and is a highly social experience.

Look at how it reduces stress and boosts the activity of the immune system. Humor lightens your load, it relaxes your body and some say may even protect your heart by increasing the function of blood vessels.

So have a good laugh today...find something funny and make yourself feel good. Thank goodness we no longer have to feel bad about a hearty laugh.

See ya next week.

Hope the Whimbrel

In the wilds of Virginia on the Delmarva Peninsula a group of scientists mobilized in May of 2009 to capture and outfit Whimbrels with satellite tracking devices. Whimbrels are known to travel enormous distances during migration but no one really knew the routes they took or the stops that they made along the way. The idea behind the capture was to try and track the migratory behavior of these birds as they traveled to and from their nesting and wintering habitats.

Six female Whimbrels were caught, measured, weighed, equipped with trackers, and named. They were then released back into the marsh where they were found. From that day forward the birds could be followed as long as their satellites remained operational.

Out of the six, the bird named Hope came into our lives. After she was fitted with this new piece of baggage she remained in the marsh for another two weeks, fattening up on fiddler crabs and getting used to her transmitter. The transmitter's are designed so that they don't impede a birds flight or foraging behavior and the weight was kept down to 9.5 grams. A Whimbrel can gain and lose nearly 40% of their weight during migration so the transmitter is no burden to the birds.

Hope finally left Delmarva and headed north for the Hudson Bay. She did a few brief stops to refuel before heading west to the MacKenzie Delta in the Northwest Territories off the Beaufort Sea. Here in the arctic she finally stopped for the breeding season. After spending 6-8 weeks there she took off to head to her wintering grounds. Most of the Whimbrels that had been tracked previously were followed as far south as Brazil but Hope, after flying east across the Northwest Territories took off out over the Atlantic from Maine. She traveled non-stop in a half circle that took her east of Bermuda until finally landing on the island of St. Croix days later. By August of 2009 she had already traveled about 13,000 miles since her capture.

When she landed on St. Croix the scientists tracking her thought it was just a refueling stop. Local birders Lisa Yntema and myself caught wind of her arrival and went out to Great Pond to see if we could find and photograph her. As luck would have it we found her quickly and took some fuzzy photos. Lisa contacted the researchers in Virginia, forwarded the pics and we waited to see what she would do next.

The scientists thought she would stay on island a few weeks to build up fat so she could complete her journey south but as the days, weeks and months went by it became evident that St. Croix's Great Pond was her wintering ground. It wasn't until April of 2010 that she finally took off to head back to the breeding grounds on the MacKenzie Delta. She stopped again in the staging area of the Delmarva Peninsula where she had been captured. Fed on fiddler crabs and fattened up for another trip north.

Once again she went to her breeding grounds, nested, and then made the great trek back to St. Croix. Again Lisa Yntema found her at Great Pond, recorded her appearance and forwarded the results back to the scientists. April of 2011 she took off again and repeated the sequence of events except this time after leaving the nesting area in August and flying out off the Canadian Maritimes she ran into tropical storm Gert. She flew for 27 hours at only 9mph through Gert until finally reaching the backside of the storm where, after 2 hours flying at 92mph, she landed safely on Cape Cod. She only stayed there one day before going back to Virginia.

In the marsh she knew so well she weathered Hurricane Irene which completely submerged the habitat. Fletcher Smith who had originally outfitted her hasn't figured out how she survived there with everything under water but she did. In September she and Machi, another Whimbrel that had a transmitter, left within a day of each other only to intersect with Tropical storm Maria. Machi landed on Guadaloupe and was shot by hunters but Hope landed safely at Great Pond on St. Croix.

After the take down in Guadaloupe Fletcher flew down to retrieve the satellite transmitters from two birds that ended up being shot. Knowing that we had been able to find Hope and that she was in a semi protected area he felt it was crucial to come to St. Croix and do some talks to focus on the importance of wetland areas in the islands to migrating birds. Hope was the star of his presentations for she was the only Whimbrel that had survived so far.

After wintering on St. Croix for another season she did her round trip once more. Stopping in Virginia to load up on food, flying to the Arctic, nesting, then back to Great Pond with out encountering any hurricanes. She arrived September 4^th, but by September 10^th her transmitter had gone silent. Lisa found her again and discovered that the antenna had snapped off. Contacting Fletcher in Virginia it was determined that he would need to come down try to recapture her and take the transmitter off.

He arrived late evening November 17 and before the sun rose the next day he had set up a blind to hide in while trying to catch Hope. The idea was to use noose mats created out of chicken wire and fishing line. Hundreds of little nooses littered the frame work. These mats were placed down flat in the area that Hope was known to frequent. For two long 12 hour days she teased Fletcher and Lisa, even walking across the mats four times, until finally on the third day while trying to defend her territory from another Whimbrel she stepped on a mat that had been spray painted to camouflage it. At 9:30am on November 20^th Hope's job was finished. She was freed of the transmitter and set loose.

According to Fletcher wild birds that will never live in harmony with man occupy the wildest regions of the world. We need to educate everyone that their livelihoods are dependent upon us maintaining those places in as pristine a manner as possible. Hope is a scientific success story. She has revealed so much that was not known to researcher's and is an inspiration to all of us that came in contact with her amazing travels.

Great Pond is designated as an Important Bird Area which is a global effort to conserve areas that are vital to migrating birds. By working to identify areas to conserve for ourselves and the birds we can help to slow the pace of decline migrating birds are suffering from. Hope is our banner bird for the island of St. Croix but there are many more that stop and or winter here that are just as important as she is.

See Ya Next Week

Snippets of Love

A friend had a piece up on her Facebook page this morning that i think i might put as a quote i love on my Facebook page. It had this illustration with it but i don't know who to credit it to. 

“When the wave realizes its part of the ocean, the resistance to change disappears.”

Thict Nhat Hanh

If I confide my secrets
to you in a bar,
it is far better than to pray
without you in
a house of worship.
You are the alpha and omega;
without you everything is nothing.
If you wish, you can
sentence us to hell,
and if you wish, you can
decide to cherish us.
Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 262/ Arberry 1949

Years ago my mother gave me a book called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Inside her friend who had given her the book wrote.

“Greatest of all forms of wealth is the wealth of kindness,

Material goods are riches to fools only.”

Indian Proverb

The book was copyrighted in 1938 and is filled with plates of embellished illustrations. Unfortunately my mother pressed a rose the friend had given her in the book and ruined a plate. She left a note apologizing for her mistake as it went through several pages. But the messages remain.

i take the book out sometimes and read snippets, think about my mom and cherish Khayyams poetry. Omar liked a good glass of wine and a lot of his poetry reflects upon that.

I know the outside
of being and nothingness,
and I know the inside
of the high and the low.
Even so, I should be ashamed
of all my knowledge
if I knew of any higher status
than drunkenness.
Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 336

i think Omar liked to drink way more than i do but i can appreciate his reverence for a good glass of wine.

Juan Cole who writes a political blog about the Middle East also cherishes his poetry and has been translating some that he publishes at his site. i've put a few of them up here and close with one in my mom's book.

In this life, all those who have

half a piece of bread
and a resting place
in which to nest;
who are neither servants
nor masters of others–
let them rejoice,
for their world is a happy one.
Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 168

The elite and lofty crowd who
hold exalted office
are disgusted at the life of
grief and bother that they suffer.
But when they consider the ones who,
unlike them, are not the
prisoners of high ambition–
the amazing thing is that they do not
even reckon them as human.
Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 153

This poem i love the most.

Into this Universe, and why not knowing,
Not whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing:
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not whither, willy-nilly blowing.

Translated by Edward Fitzgerald from Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat

If the United States were able to develop a viable electric car and reliable renewables to power our electric grids it would take our focus off the gulf region. We would no longer care what they did for we wouldn't have to protect access to resources. Geopolitically that area of the world would become irrelevant and we could begin to love them again.

See ya next week.

Consent

In order to win you have to also feel safe in losing for losing is sometimes a better teacher than winning. When the kids were young and we played board games or card games losing was a hard lesson to teach them but just as important as wanting to win. No one wants to lose.

Being a "good sport" does not mean accepting the loss as a harbinger for future losses. Losing means that that one particular contest that didn't go your way is not a reflection upon your character. Mitt Romney was very gracious last night. He congratulated President Obama and emphasized his desire to see us all work together. President Obama also reached out to him.  i sincerely hope that Mitt and those in the House take the President up on his offer of cooperation.

In 2008 when Obama won i wrote a letter to him reminding him that half of the country would be unhappy. That their loss would grate on them and that we the winners should never forget that they also had to have a voice. That he had to listen to them for their concerns are our concerns.

i've written about this before but today is a good time to dredge it back up again. Anthropologists in Africa realized that one vote for one person had torn apart villages that had previously worked together. When the colonists arrived they instituted the vote by giving each villager a stone and asking them to place them in the bowls that represented the new tribal leaders. At the end of the voting process when the winner was declared those that had lost were left wanting. They were resentful, uncooperative and very angry.

The reason for their anger was that prior to the colonists changing their system leaders were elected by consent not voting. What this meant was that those wanting to lead had to get all the villagers to agree to have them lead. This took time but at the end the man chosen knew the entire village was behind him. The reason this worked out so well was that everyone in the village was considered equal and interdependent. They were able to reason together on an equal footing going over the pluses and minus of those wanting to lead until they reached a decision. They were part and parcel of the results and therefore supportive.

Our extremely emotional and highly partisan election process pits winners and losers against each other. It creates division. It doesn't build trust or understanding and leaves half the nation angry. The needs of those that lost is dismissed by the winners.

When i wrote the President in 2008 i tried to express my disdain for one man one vote. It doesn't reduce the friction between the parties it just intensifies it. The minority party losses its voice and is then chained to an adversarial position. It is sick.

As we all get more partisan and the country experiences gridlock what can we all do to change this?

How can we make a difference when so many are disenfranchised because this happens no matter which party wins? In the past all those going to Congress were winners, they had won their elections and were going to work for the nation regardless of which party it was. They could and did work together but that is no longer the case.

President Obama has a rough road ahead and i wish him well. Uniting the United States may be impossible under the circumstances of our electoral process and majority rule.

But there are alternatives...Consensus democracy, Deliberative democracy or Sociocracy are systems maybe we should consider as we move forward into the 21^st Century. Whether these would work in such a large country is questionable but consent is always better than what we are left with now.

I call her the White Pigeon of Peace she has moved in for awhile!

See ya next week.