Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Music,Dogs,Cats and Other Animals

Some would say it is easy to predict where some of us will end up in life by looking at the environment, examining the gene pool and if there is no calamity it is easy to predict with at least 75 % accuracy what this child or that child will become. I say all you have to do is observe how they act around animals and you can predict with greater accuracy where that child will be when he or she becomes a man or woman.


I knew three guys who all shared the same gene pool and environment and turned out so different from one another that many would swear they were not related. They all worked for the Psychology department at the University they were attending. The oldest guy got the job first. They had to clean the labs that housed the animals that were being used for experiments. There were some small Apes or Monkeys that had all sorts of electrodes attached to them. There were other small animals like hamsters and white rats. They didn't have to inter-act with the animals but they did each on a different level.


The oldest guy couldn't look at the caged simians without wanting to cry. The poor chimps were being mutilated just so the students could become Clinical Psychologists which he thought was grossly unfair. But he couldn't do anything about it. He cleaned and left to get on with his life which really had nothing to do with the University life. He was just going to keep his parents off his back as he pursued his dream of becoming a rock personality. This was more suited to his style, long hair with flashes of red and blond and shaggy jeans and torn tee shirts. He had pets at home but never got too close. Then one day he was told to take this certain white rat outside and break his neck as the Lab. had no more use of him. He took him outside and when that rat looked at him he couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't want to lose his job and he couldn't set him free because the rat would die in the wild of Queens. So he did what he had to do, he brought him home. His father was adamant that in no way would he have a rat in his home, he had enough of them at the office. But by cajoling, begging and handing his father a sales pitch he got him to approve with the caveat that he couldn't let the rat loose or it would get into the walls and things like that. After a while when the son would come into the room with the rat curled around his cowboy hat the father grew to really like him, he would say that rats are really nice people and if we didn't spread garbage they wouldn't be sick and bite at us. The rat finally died and had a decent burial. The son got married and the dreams of becoming a rock personality never really died but responsibilities kind of smothered those dreams. His household is full of animals including some turtles that get lost occasionally but always re-appear. He still dresses like a hippie. He went from job to job until he settled on one. Eventually he became a very successful sales manager in the construction industry where he could keep his style of dress and have a staff of some two-hundred and fifty guys. Sort of like a pack animal with him being the Alpha dog still selling the notion that he is only thinking of you like when he convinced his father to house that really nice White Rat.


The middle guy came to the Psychology Lab. next and he immediately noticed the hooked up simians. When he would clean up he'd talk to them in a soothing voice letting them know he felt badly for them and that he wanted to make their lives better, if he could. After a while when he would enter they would rush to the front of the cage and turn around so he could groom them, pick the fleas off the fur. After a while they insisted that he give them his arms so they could groom him, even if he didn't have fleas. There was real rapport between him and the chimps. He had no unrealistic dreams about being a sports star or a musician, no he wanted to succeed in Psychology, get married and have a nice life. So with a goal in mind he proceeded towards that purpose. Today he is well respected in the community that deals with compromised children. In effect he is still grooming the simians only they are human. He is happily married, and in effect is still grooming and loving the woman in his life.


The youngest guy entered the Lab. and saw animals that were compromised badly. He had a goal to succeed, win. Winning meant succeeding. Although he was sympathetic to the needs of the animals they might stand in the way of achieving his goal if he let their plight get to him. So he became the aggressor, the one in charge. When he entered the Lab. the chimps would jump up and down and scream. They wouldn't shut up until he rattled their cages. If they could they would have ripped his hide out but they never got the chance. He was in charge. He was the boss. He was the winner. He played sports and tended bar as he worked his way through the Graduate Degrees. Today he is a very successful Professional man but if the truth be known he would still prefer being the bar-tender who was in the Hampton's in the summer and Ski Country in the winter. However this couldn't support his loves which include Golf and of course his wife and children.

So keep the music playing in your lives. Follow your dreams and always be nice to the animals around you!


   

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