The boys and I were off in Ontario for a week visiting my sister in Toronto. Toronto has a lot going for it -- we were wildly busy and hugely entertained the whole time and really enjoyed our visit. We went to the zoo (and saw the baby panda and the baby rhino and the baby polar bear -- I admit I am conflicted about the zoo and zoos in general, because I don't believe in keeping animals in captivity and know they are better off in their own wild state, but the wilderness is under such an unrelenting assault that you have to wonder if these animals can eke out a life in their natural places. Obviously, that's where we need to focus our efforts -- preserving and expanding the natural wild environments -- but until we are able to do that, perhaps for some of these animals, they can survive in these unnatural places and be missionaries for their species when we humans get our act together. It is upsetting to think that in the wilderness, a tiger uses about 20 to 100 square kilometres, and of course, the tigers in the zoo don't even get a kilometre to range in.) It makes me think of that great Jorge Luis Borges story which I will quote here:
Inferno 1, 32
From each day's dawn to dusk each night a leopard, during the final years of the twelfth century, beheld a few boards, some vertical iron bars, shifting men and women, a thick wall, and perhaps a stone gutter stopped with dry leaves. He did not know, he could not know, that what he longed for was love and cruelty and the hot pleasure of tearing things apart and the wind carrying the scent of a deer. But something in him was smothering and rebelling, and God spoke to him in a dream: "You live and will die in this cage so that a man known to me may look at you a predetermined number of times, and may not forget you, and may put your shape and your symbol in a poem which has its necessary place in the scheme of the universe. You suffer captivity, but you will have given a word to the poem." God, in the dream, illumined the animal's brutishness and he understood the reasons, and accepted his destiny; but when he awoke there was only a dark resignation in him, a valiant ignorance, for the machinery of the world is far too complex for the simplicity of a wild beast.
Years later Dante lay dying in Ravenna, as unjustified and as alone as any other man. In a dream God declared to him the secret purpose of his life and his work; Dante, filled with wonder, knew at last who he was and what he was, and he blessed his bitter sufferings. Tradition has it that, on waking, he felt he had been given -- and then had lost -- something infinite, something he would not be able to recover, or even to glimpse, for the machinery of the world is far too complex for the simplicity of men.
I cannot read that vignette without becoming emotional. The world is much too complex for us to understand and there are so many mysteries beyond our comprehension. We hope our suffering has a purpose. Perhaps one word in "The Divine Comedy" is worth the suffering of the leopard.
I wanted to email a number of you with whom I have discussed the concept of determinism and point you to an excellent program on "The Nature of Things" from last week. It was called "My Brain Made Me Do It" and was about the powerful influence of brain chemistry on our behaviour. Scientists had developed a medicine to treat the severe symptoms of Parkinson's disease and the medicine was very effective in eliminating the crippling tics experienced by sufferers of the disease. But the medicine also altered the activity in the brains of a number of the patients and turned them into problem gamblers! Now, most of us think that people can decide whether or not to gamble and people who get into trouble with gambling should "just stop", but it was determined that the medicine for Parkinson's had affected these patients' ability to control their behaviour. Scientists and researchers said that a number of things can alter our brain chemistry -- injuries as children, experiences we have, foods we eat -- and sometimes, these alterations make us unable to control our behaviours. It was a fascinating program and certainly bolstered my belief in determinism. Instead of punishing people who are suffering through addictions, maybe we should try to find out why some of us do not become addicted to drugs or alcohol and some of us do. The same could follow for criminal activity in general. Watch the program (I imagine it's available on You-tube, or through the CBC.)
The last thing I wanted to mention was that we went to a show at The Second City while we were in Toronto. The Second City is one of the original homes of what has become a hugely successful improv comedy breeding ground. Here's a list of some names that have come from the stages of Second City: Paul Sills, Jerry Stiller, Alan Arkin, Peter Boyle, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Catherine O'Hara, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jane Lynch, Mike Myers, Steve Carrell, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Eugene Levy and Colin Mochrie. Wow! from pre-1970 to now, quite a cast of great actors, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The show we saw -- "The Hotline Always Blings Twice" -- was a collection of topical sketches and was terrific. There were lots of great moments but one that stood out for me was an elementary show and tell -- it started with a little boy showing his iPad and then a man came out. He said that he realized he didn't really fit in but that he was a Syrian refugee and since there was no room in adult ESL classes, he was told to enrol in this class. He spoke about the differences he was noticing between Canadians and himself (like, for him, it was a big problem when he looked over his shoulder and found that his house had been blown up and for Canadians, we are bummed out by it being Monday). It was really funny but it also was uncomfortable and poignant and that's what great comedy should do -- it has to make you laugh, of course, but it should also make you think and if it's really great, it should shake you up a bit. The program mentioned that the training at Second City focuses on helping actors play fully developed characters -- that's where the humour comes from, not from "trying to be funny". Isn't that what I always say? (As my sister and I have always said to each other, "she's right, she's right, she's always right!")
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