Searching for peace at the top of the pyramid

We had been to a zoo the other day. We had reached there early as the zoo is big and takes a full day for family with kids to go around completely. The place was crowed but the kids were excited looking at the animals as we went around the zoo. It was close to the feeding time for the apes by the time we reached the part which has enclosures for chimps, gorillas, monkeys etc. There are benches to sit and watch as the animals are fed by the zoo keepers. I sat down to watch on one of the bench. It was like a few minutes when the gentleman next to me started a conversation. We spoke about how the animals behave when they see the food, how they eat, how the keepers handle them. One part of our conversation went like this -

Gentleman – It seems as if these animals know the time when to expect the food. Look at how they react when they see the keepers. You see those chimps there? Looks like they are now full.

Me – Some of them already seem to be sleeping.

Gentleman – yeah. It’s nice to see all these animals at the zoo; especially once they are fed. Once they are full they relax and laze. It feels so calm and peaceful to see them.

Me – True. It feels so peaceful here.

We spoke for some time but this part of the conversation did not leave me. I kept thinking about it even long after we had left that area. Something was bothering me. The question then occurred to me - “What is wrong with me?”.

We humans are supposed to be the most intelligent species on earth and represent the pinnacle of evolution. But when it comes to be being peaceful, none of this intelligence helps and we have to look at a bunch of monkeys to relax and be at peace? Maybe these monkeys know something that we intelligent humans don’t. Agreed, these animals are in cages and unfortunately have to spend a restricted life. But they get food on time without any effort and they seem to be at peace with this arrangement. And more so what is it that we humans are achieving been outside the cage? We worry about something or the other all the time - taxes, mortgages, children’s education, traffic, you name it. We also worry about things that have not even happened – stock market predictions, retirement money, health insurance for illness we don’t have.

The fundamental truth of our worries is that none of our worries are about alien invasion from outer space or a comet on a collision path with earth or such things as they show in movies. All of our worries have everything to do with the thoughts and actions of other humans. So all through our lives we worry about things that are based on actions and reactions of fellow humans.

Looks like somewhere during our evolution from apes, we exchanged peace for intelligence. Then we used our intelligence to cage monkeys and donkeys and feed them so that they don’t have to worry about food. Now we are using the same intelligence to achieve calm and peace by looking at those monkeys and donkeys as they laze around on full stomach.

I am still wondering; who is more intelligent - The ones inside the cage or the ones outside? 

~Narendra V Joshi