This Planet

I’ve been watching “Planet Earth” on the Discovery Channel. It really is fascinating. I have all the respect in the world for the cameramen and women that filmed that show, but more interesting to me is the strange parallels between the wild and human society.

I have chosen one specific example of wild/civilized correspondence; attracting a mate. It seems like in most every case the males are trying to attract the females. And although Madonna may have given girls more courage, men seem to make up the majority of the pursuers in the dating world.

Within homo-sapiens, women are far more attractive (lets be honest, guys are quintessential utilitarian), however, males are often trying to convince the females of their stature. Animals in the wild often expand their feathers or blow up their cheeks to impress women. Interestingly, almost every time I have had someone help me buy shoes in a department store they suggest that I should wear one size bigger because that is what most find more comfortable. That’s crazy. Clown sized shoes are not comfortable. But I can’t imagine why guys would buy larger shoes.

Finally, to strengthen the correlation, dancing. A little bird in the South American rain forest (the bird of paradise) spends all day preparing the cluttered floor where he latter dances a ridiculous boogie to attract women. Women, the only reason why a guy will dance with you is because he wants to get into your pants, honestly. We look stupid, our friends will make fun of us for months, and slow songs make us want to puke.