WOLVES: Our Expendable Resource

Wolves...

Red-riding hood taught us how sneaky and ravenous they were.

Horror movies taught us that they shape-shifted, posing as innocents, until an opportune time when they could have their way with their victims.

Even the Three-Little Pigs scorned and mocked the wolf.

Wolves have been maligned, feared and hated through most of recorded history.

So, what’s the truth of wolves?

Are they nasty, vicious, gratuitous killers or nurturing, loving animals that kill only to eat?

I have had the opportunity to be in the company of wolves; to pet them, howl with them and sit in their pack. It was an experience that I will never forget or regret. These magnificent creatures were kindly, yet powerful, and I respected them. However, before I left the alpha female came up behind me. She put her teeth on my scalp and began to groom my hair.

The pack is structured. The male leader and female leader (alphas) are established, as are the other roles. Each pack member eats at the kill and each looks after the litter when the pups are born. They engage in play and demonstrate love by grooming one another.

I was an interloper who came bearing gifts of food and play. The grooming was their acceptance of me. I was honored.

By doing research I have learned that wolves are not indiscriminate killers. Wolves kill only to eat. There has never been a report of a healthy wolf attacking a person. Wolves, by nature, are shy and stay away from people.

Hopefully, we all still recoil in horror as we remember the videos of the aerial killings of the wolves in Alaska. Each year in Alaska, wolves are chased by planes until they drop from exhaustion, then they’re shot and hung on the strut of the plane to trade for bounty. I view this with great shame. Wolves are hunted by air and killed because some politicians decided it would be so.

Also, Friday, another terrible blow was dealt to the survival of wolves.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that he would follow the discredited path of the Bush Administration and delist wolves in the Northern Rockies and Greater Yellowstone region. This is a stunning development, just six weeks into the Obama Administration. This delisting paves the way for almost 1000 wolves to be killed. One thousand wolves will be killed - because we have big guns and we can indiscriminately kill - even though wolves don't and won't.

I am in mourning that we cannot learn to live harmoniously with other creatures of the earth. Are we so egocentric that we believe we are the only ones who deserve to live unencumbered? Yellowstone has not seen its present level of environmental health since the wolf was hunted to extinction a hundred years ago.

But, in addition to wolves eating elk, bison and moose that have stripped the trees and shrubs, ranchers are also losing cows to wolves. So – the wolves will be slaughtered. The government pays the ranchers the going rate for their lost livestock. But, it is not enough. The price must be extracted in blood. The wolves must die.

Please write, or email, President Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to reinstate the protection of the Endangered Species List to the gray wolves of the Rockies.

Secretary Ken Salazaar
1849 C Street N.W.
Washington, DC 20240

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W
Washington, DC 20500

Gray wolves have been brought back from the brink of extinction once. However, we may not be so fortunate the next time and they will go the way of the Mexican wolf and the Red wolf which have only a few mating pairs left in the world.

Where, oh where, oh where is our honor?

To the Bookstore and Beyond!

One of my favorite activities is spending a leisurely morning (afternoon or evening) at a bookstore that has a coffee bar and lots and lots of magazines and unusual book titles – not just the bestsellers. I have discovered some of my favorite non-fiction authors in this way: Daniel Boorstin, Stephen Jay Gould, Sarah Ban Breathnach, Gregg Levoy, Clarissa Pinkola Estes and many others.

My bookcases overflow with books which I plan to read and also with the treasures that I’ve finished and believe I must keep for reference. Books open new worlds of thought that help me know more about myself and those with whom I come into contact.

The worlds I've discovered in books have enriched my life more than I can ever express. Years ago, I overheard the conversation of some friends discussing something they wanted to learn and said they’d just get a book to instruct them on how to go about it. As peculiar as it seems now, I remember being a bit stunned to think I could learn something without formal instruction. Those were the days before the Internet and learning anything involved studying the library’s card catalog and hoping for the best. But, man-oh-man, the vistas this opened. I’ve spent hours at the library researching first one thing and then another – and for free! Amazing!

My friends say that I can carry on a conversation with a fence post and eventually get it to answer me. Some of this is a result of all that I have absorbed through reading. I know a little bit about a lot of things. However, I also learned how to be an engaging conversationalist by reading, How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. For years, I continued to be too shy to fully practice what I’d learned, but the concepts were swirling in my brain awaiting my willingness to jump into conversations and contribute.

Today, with television as a learning-tool, many people engage in monologues instead of conversations, as conversation involves two or more people talking, not one talking non-stop. Have you ever met anyone who talks at you, but not with you, as they don’t ask you questions to include you, but they talk on and on, often repeating themselves trying to find a way to tie up their thoughts?

In How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie outlines how to ask questions, listen to the answers and respond thoughtfully. I believe if this book were required reading for every middle school student in America, there would be a lot less angst during those years of insecurity and awkwardness. We wouldn’t have to make fun and rail against others as we’ve learned on television, by listening to Homer Simpson and others, but would know how to be interesting, conversational and kind when talking.

How to Win Friends and Influence People; great book for anyone who struggles in social settings, from one who has struggled.

Also, another fun book I found during one of my obscure title quests is, The List, by Gail Belsky. The book, as its title states, is a list which explores ninety-nine adventures by women who made decisions about what they wanted to do, researched how to go about it, determined dates to venture forth and then followed through. The book tells of yearnings as diverse as swimming with sea creatures to joining a cattle drive; setting up a web site or buying yourself a sex toy. There are ninety-five others just as innovative and wacky that sparked creativity within my own mind when I read them.

I made my list:

To finish my book of art and essays and to be published
To have my screenplay about Harry Truman produced by Gary Ross or Rita Wilson and her husband, Tom Hanks
Make a CD before my voice is so decrepit I can no longer hit high C
Finish my one-woman play and actually have the courage to perform it
Learn to belly dance
Go to Yellowstone, Machu Pichu, Alaska and Montana
Learn to sea-kayak
Photograph running wild horses
Attend the Astra writing workshop in Greece
Find out more information about my mysterious Greek great-grandfather
Camp on a lake and awaken to birds singing
Learn to play the violin, bagpipes and banjo
Learn to carve and produce a carousel animal
Learn pottery
Visit Madagascar and photograph Lemurs
Take an African safari and photograph everything in sight…

What would be on your list and how could you make them happen?

As I said, these are the ones that come to mind right now. Considering my age, I wonder when I will make plans to do these things. Without planning, they will not happen.

Life is so much more exciting when I have something to look forward to. I’ll keep you informed.

In the meantime, you will find me at the bookstore, by the coffee bar probably munching a chocolate chip cookie, crouched over a mountain of magazines and books seeing what further adventures await.