Learn the names of the winds
Different winds have different names. The wind of a particular locale may have a particular character and, in many cases, has been given a name by the people who have known its company. We have a most intimate relationship with the wind: it swirls in our ears, runs its fingers through our hair, and envelopes the whole of our bodies and yet few of us know the name of the wind where we live. The indifference we show to the wind as it carries away the sweat from our skin is a significant form of disrespect; knowing someone’s name lets them know that they matter to you at least in some small way.
Look toward the moon
I will recognize and in some way honor each full moon. The selection of this approximately once a month event is in some ways arbitrary; there is no shortage of natural events that warrant our attention or could serve as a focus for ritual and reflection. The idea is to select something for closer than usual attention and to honor it, to assert that it is indeed sacred and worth pausing for. The full moon is unquestionably worth pausing for.
Learn to draw
Only recently have I taken an interest in learning to draw but I have thus far been quite lax in my efforts and hope to reinvigorate them. As far as I can tell, from the naïve vantage point that I currently occupy, learning to draw would in many ways be learning to see; to take note of what’s there and record it in some fashion. It is a means of focusing one’s attention on something and picking out details that might otherwise be missed; perhaps the actual act of drawing is a means to an end, a technique for focusing one’s attention toward a particular object, individual, or landscape and granting it some measure of attention.
Walk and bike greater distances
This is fairly self-explanatory. Walking and biking are both highly efficient and uniquely enjoyable means of transit. I am tempted to suggest that bike travel is probably the fastest rate at which humans should be travelling. It may be objected that we need cars and planes to visit distant loved ones and that much is true for the moment; but we must not forget that it is cars and planes that carried our loved ones away (or carried us away from them as it may be).
Fill in the blanks on this blog
There are some gaps on this blog that I would like to fill in including the About section which is currently blank (as I am only recently coming to discover what the blog is in fact about). I have also considered putting up a page of book titles and possibly short reviews of titles that I have found particularly compelling and that inform the content of the Uncivilized Animals blog. Other than that, I hope to continue with my goal of two posts per month.
Okay…that last one hardly qualifies as uncivilized…but no list is perfect.
Uncivilized Animals 