I recall back in the late nineteen sixties when Desmond Morris published his book with the at the time provocative title, “The Naked Ape.” it caused quite the stir.
Now, I’ve just run across the term “East African Plains Ape” to describe homo sapiens. Still provocative. Although maybe part of why I really liked it.
And, I wondered if it were in fact a scientific term. Sadly, a quick google search reveals it isn’t in common usage. And in fact may be a bit too specific to even be accurate enough to be any kind of contender as a scientific term. In that regard one alternative being offered was “Pan African Plains Ape.”
But. As an image, as a pointer to our common ancestry as well as our place in the scheme of the world, I find I rather like it. Actually, I like it a lot. With the specificity of location, that East Africa, and the likelihood that our kind of ape took shape on the plains, not certainty, I think, but likelihood, give the term a certain evocative feel.
And it would be good for us to embrace our ape-ness. I know for us to embrace a term like this when describing ourselves is no panacea to the ills of our sense of specialness on this planet. But it seems to me if we were able to see ourselves as a species of ape, we might take a little more care about our place in the web of life on this little planet. And this poor planet could sure use some help in that regard.
And. There’s something at least as important. Something psychological, or, if you will, spiritual going on.
It recalls for me a lovely koan in the Zen tradition, “Each branch of coral holds up the moon.”
There is the coral with its branches. And there is that moon. Images rich with import.
And pretty easy to see the metaphor speaking to us. Here we have gorillas, orangoutangs, chimpanzees, bonobos, east african plains apes, (and, yes, the litany goes on, not just to monkeys, but to snakes, and cockroaches, amoebas, grasses, lichens, oh the list is long. Didn’t even get to the nonsentient sentient…) each a branch of coral, as we birth into the world, live, and even as we die presenting something lovely, and often dangerous, and both completely unique, and completely one coral reflecting the light of the moon, more even, actually holding up the moon.
Finding this as something real and embodied true can be very important.
For those with eyes to see, we’re not just talking taxonomy, but, also being invited into the heart of the matter. We’re being offered our own finding the healing of the great hurt.
That important.
That amazing.
That lovely.
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