Answering Questions

When I do a reading/signing/event, I try to leave plenty of time for questions. This is especially true if I discern that most of the people at the event have already read, or are reading, the book. Then, instead of reading from the book, which is traditional, I leave more time for questions. I have encountered the most delightful people at these events!

At Book Passages in the San Francisco area, a woman came in who had read the book several times and had some questions all ready to go. She had to leave early and it was a shame I didn't get to meet her because I found her absolutely delightful in her directness and frankness. She asked me if it bothered me that I wasn't using my expertise in Barn Owls more (I'm disabled and spend most of my time in bed still), after all those years of study.

Here's the answer:
I feel like it was more important to me to explain Barn Owls through Wesley to regular people than it could ever be for me to write up scientific papers for journals that most people will never read. Those scientific papers are tough reading, plus they're waaay too expensive to subscibe to unless it's your profession to do so. This is not to say that it's not important to publish scientific papers, or that they go to waste, because they don't go to waste. The scientific community gathers the research and it ends up in the right hands doing great things, ultimately, but it can take decades for the information to reach people who have not made it their life calling to read biology journals, etc.

To me, I am using my expertise in barn owls! I'm letting people know what I found to be true, directly, through the book. I think it's more important for us as a civilization to understand that the wild animals around us are thinking, feeling, complicated, playful, loving, anxious, joyful, sorrowful...that they have real emotion and real intelligence. The other details about a particular species are important too, but only in the context of understanding the animal himself (or herself).

It's AMAZING to me to see the myriad ways in which animals are perfectly adapted to their habitat, as long as that habitat isn't messed with by human interference. But it's even more amazing to me that they have individual personalities and proclivities, opinions, scruples, thoughts, problem solving skills, ideas!

So that's my answer. I am doing exactly what I think I should be doing with the knowledge I've gained through Wesley and his Tyto Alba brethren!

If I were to have to list a book...ok make that two books...that have altered my life since childhood, they would have to be In the Shadow of Man (NUMBER ONE BOOK!) by Jane Goodall, and Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat. I have returned to those two books like they were old friends, year after year. I learned more from Jane Goodall's book about animals and the way they ARE than from all the studies I had in biology, chemistry, math, physics, philosophy, etc. It's not that I don't highly value those studies, but their END, to me, should be a deeper understanding. That's what I've been pursuing all this time - a deeper understanding. And that's what those two books helped me to find, which is why I wanted to write about Wesley and his barn owl wild compatriots, for regular people to read and understand. Of course scientists have read it too, and I've had lovely discussions w/ scientists like Dr. Don Kroodsma and Dr. Marc Bekoff about animal sentience, too.

At some point maybe I will have the opportunity to do a further study with another Barn Owl, especially in regard to his ability to process symbolic language, and perhaps even to publish in a scientific journal.

But in the meantime, if people are discussing the emotional lives of animals (which is actually another of my favorite titles, by Marc Bekoff - The Emotional Lives of Animals) then I'm a happy camper!

I sense that there is a wave of new understanding happening all over about animals and just who they really are. A groundswell of realization. And I'm very happy to be a small part of that! I'm in awe to be a small part of that!

Every one of us who has had a deep relationship with any animal, domestic or wild, is a part of that deeper understanding!