Thursday, February 3, 2022

Getting a New Pet: Do we NEED nonverbal communication? by Sandra Russell

Original Art (c) Sandra Russell

Getting a New Pet: Do we NEED nonverbal communication? 

I'm getting a new puppy! I have been searching for a few months since the passing of my 14 1/2 year old dog. I really miss the 'other life form' bounding around the house and decided to get one young for the energy and the promise of long-term relationship. Pet owners and animal lovers don't need reminding about the affectionate bonds animals and humans have, but I came up with another consideration about why this desire is so strong, and what other elements of our lives are a bit tricky to explain, very strong in some of us more than others. 

I am thinking that we humans love to communicate with one another, usually with words and speech; emails, visits, phone calls; but we also like to sort of hide our true feelings and find it difficult to relax with 'social engagements' because there is a certain amount of "performance" or being "on" in these exchanges. That is where the cat, dog, horse, art, music, nonverbal communications are actual needs. Maybe the right brain/left brain balance is at work here? The right brain is given to the work of art making, and I consider that a pet may fit some exercise over here as well? When we look into the face of an animal, we are not merely giving it commands and watching its behavior, we are receiving communication from the animal as well. They look at us with love, curiosity, understanding. What is it they understand about us, that others don't? That even we don't love or understand about ourselves? I don't know. I just know that I feel it. I cherish it. I respect it. So, I think "Here's looking at you kid" did not become a famous line from Casablanca without the resonance of such a concept of knowing and understanding, being unfamiliar to us. We may have had to say 'goodbye' to the love of our life; but often we feel it anyway in the loves that are present in our lives every day. Music, art, pets...soul food.



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