Guest Essayist: Harry T. Spence

Sometimes when I peruse the many bits and pieces of communication that comes my way I cannot get over the feeling, “This is too good to keep to myself...” and if you are a regular reader of THE WORDWRIGHT you know I have occasionally re-published essays written by my repertory of friends who are writers and fellow-members of the American Amateur Press Association*. The AAPA is a world-wide organization of people who love to write, or "pump out" printing with a foot-treadle letterpress printing machine or have joined the marvel of desktop publishing converts, made possible by the computer and an inexpensive printer that has 4 little bottles of ink which converge in the innards of that electric machine and produce 4-color print-outs (in one pass through the machine) that make the mimeograph of the past ooh and ahh with jealousy. Some members also publish Electronic or E-Journals. Harry T. Spence of Norwood, Massachusetts has been featured in this spot before and once again Harry has “rung my bell” with this essay.

Sometime during 2007, a news item popped up somewhere having to do with a group of British biologists(?) who were attempting to induce the Parliament to pass legislation to protect the category of animals known as apes. Their contention (the biologists) was that the age was the same as a human insofar as DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is concerned and therefore deserved all the rights afforded to humans. Upon seeing this, I immediately wrote it off as another group of screwball British scientists.

The matter reminded me of the scientific infatuation with dolphins which occurred about twenty years ago. They were reputed to have a communication system and were at least as intelligent as humans. I thought Rush Limbaugh put that into perspective when he asked, “How many hospitals have they built?”

I guess I never will understand the positions taken by certain persons, whether they be fears about global warming/freezing or the intelligence of animals. I have always had a pet: dogs for the most part; cats over the last several years. They are wonderful companions, lovable and loyal; I wouldn't hurt one for the world. But, their intelligence is limited, since their brains are very small.

Humans, on the other hand, have huge brains and are extremely intelligent by comparison with the animals. If you doubt that: Just look around!

Look around and what do you see: teenagers, walking along, talking on their cell phones; a car passes, its driver listening to a GPS device telling him he has reached his destination; you see houses of every imaginable description; you stop at an eating establishment to favor almost any ethnic food you happen to desire at the moment; you go home to watch your Boston Red Sox playing the New York Yankees on High-definition color TV; you have ridden to the third floor in an elevator. I could go on and on, but I'm sure you get the point.

Just think! Whether you are a creationist or a Darwinist, you recognize that early man had very little in the way of necessaries. He may have lived in a cave; wore animal skins to protect him from the cold or the sun, as the case may be. He ate after he hunted for his food. Did he have regular eating hours? Highly unlikely.

But, he had something that the animals didn't have: He had a big brain. He could convey his thoughts to others through some type of language communication. He was never idle; he always moved about; he used his intelligence to make his life better as well as the lives of his family and neighbors. He continued through the years to make all kinds of improvements in his life.

Think ahead to what he was able to accomplish because of this huge brain. He created languages. He learned to make shelter, grow food, weave cloth. He learned what fire could do for him and learned to use fire for his convenience.

Need I go into the inventiveness of this universal wonder? Whether you enjoy all the labor saving entertaining conveniences he created, you must understand the absolute genius of these things! Is there anything that this phenom (native processor) cannot do? Time affords him opportunity to discover new things even today, I, as a black-art* printer from my earliest years, am still in open-mouthed wonder when I produce a process-color picture on my printer in about three minutes!

Is there any limit to his inventiveness! My own intelligence tells me: NO! Man will continue to baffle us with things not even thought of today. In my lifetime, Lindbergh flew to Europe in a monoplane, one year after my birth. In 1969, men walked on the moon! I was 43 years old! My father projected movies on a screen. When he watched the same movies on a TV set, he was at a loss for words. He died before the advent of color TV. How many times have I mused when watching “Gone With the Wind,” on my HDTV, Pa would absolutely collapse at seeing such a thing in our living room! So, are the animals really just as smart, just as inventive, just the same as Humans? I would have to say very Loudly; Not on your tintype!

THE WORDWRIGHT SAYS, “Thanks, Harry T. Spence, for your essay!”

*LINKS of interest: blackart - http://www.lancasterlyrics.com/
AAPA - http://aapainfo.org:80/