Elephants Don't Wear Glasses

Hurricane Ian Unleashes its fury. Photo Credit: online pic.

Are eyes really important when massive beasts like elephants and sharks have small eyes like buttons? They are to humans, the species that is attracted to things, for the sole reason of buying them.

I wear glasses so that I can see this screen and read the small print in all these things I buy on credit. I cannot even go online and do a search on pavlova without sites bombarding me with cookies.

I cannot question nature but the elephant has big everything: height, ears, legs and tusks. Despite all that, it cannot scratch itself. Therefore it relies on little birds that sit on top and perk off dirt. It is a barter system because the ticks on its back must be tasty lunch or dinner.

That barter system or interdependence is nature’s rock. The lion might be king of the jungle but it works hard for food because other animals have in-built mechanisms of detecting its possible attack. The leopard is equally dangerous and fast like lightning but smaller creatures have ways of protecting themselves from it.

Humans do not recognize that interdependence because they have declared themselves superior to nature. Humans are monosyllabic. Their technology, science and engineering dismantle nature ‘for the good of mankind’ as they put it. 

Nature had buffers like trees, to absorb angry hurricanes. Now they are gone and Hurricane Fiona and Ian encounter man-made structures like buildings, which they flatten in one swoop.

Our eyes are bigger than elephants and sharks but we cannot see beyond the hand.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.