The Temple Grandin Perspective...

A friend of mine has been struggling with writing about relationships. She recently moved and began a journey of a new life. As excited as she is by this new start she realized that somehow along the way, men and relationships began consuming more of this new life than expected. I have to admit, sometimes I can relate. I have a lot of varied interests but at times I'll catch myself intentionally going through my past blogs to make sure my relationship topics don't overwhelm the rest of my stories. In analyzing myself and this weird obsession I came to this simple realization. What I relayed to my friend is that women are creatures who try to nurture and in nurturing we try to make sense of what makes no sense. It is our way of empathizing; of organizing in our brains the chaos that is the unknown...


Today I watched a movie called Temple Grandin. It's the life story of an autistic woman's struggle to make sense out of life. For Temple, life is a series of pictures. If she thinks about shoes, she remembers every shoe she's ever worn or seen (on people, in magazines, in stores, etc). To capture a complicated language, she makes some elaborate picture and to make sense of her environment, her photographic brain produces a pictured order. She does not process fear or the unknown in the way most do, she deals with anxiety in ways that are not the American norms, and her world has it's own set of definitions.

When Temple finds herself surrounded by cattle, like my friend and I with relationships and men, she must try to understand their world. She finds gentleness in their eyes and the chaos they feel she can relate to. Her mission becomes finding peace for these animals; a life that can be humane and a death that can be respected and calm!! (How do you not love this woman's respect of animal life!!)

Temple Grandin is truly inspirational! Not only does she accomplish life when life's world norms and rules don't make sense to her and she's considered "handicapped" but she forges ahead to help people catch a glimpse of her beauty, see her world, respect and honor her vision.

I know it can be said that all people are different. Our perceptions, our worldviews, our struggles, our experiences, our life stories, how we learn, teach and grow. Regardless of that, I've learned that we can all take a bit from each difference (the life of a blind person, an obese person, a genius, an autistic, a man, a woman, a homosexual, a minority, an atheist, an environmentalist, an activist, this list should be all encompassing). Watching Temple's amazing story, moved me to tears but more than that it confirms to me how soft the human heart can be in our desire to "understand" another.

Biophilia: definition

Biophilia can be defined as a desire for people to be one or close with nature. They say this is evident in the keeping of pets or in the fact that people on the market for real estate tend to spend more for property with a nice view. I never knew myself to be a person with a keen interest in nature. I was never a woman of the outdoors, never had the desire to camp or fish as a kid or to watch Animal Planet. Then one day I remember walking into Sea World and seeing a beautiful polar bear. I was mesmerized by the grace of it's stroke as it swam in front of me. Somehow the pale beauty of its fur allowed me to perceive it as fragile and harmless. From that point on I was fascinated by the polar bear. It's life, it's habits, all of it. Along the way it seemed that anything related to the environment started to slap my face; in magazines, on television, at work even. I am amazed by the way our environment works to sustain life. We get so much from it: medicine, biodiversity, photosynthesis!

I wish the world could go back to the simple days. Where we didn't have a need to acquire so much stuff and with that need destroy precious land by chopping down trees for oil, and to develop, develop, develop. The world when more money was spent on a sustainable and healthy meal rather than our need to pump antibiotics into cows and chicken again to produce more, more, just a little more. When the kids would play ball in the backyards, or play at the playground. Remember picnics in the park? How about living in a world when alligators didn't become asexual because of all the chemicals streaming down our rivers that act to disrupt hormones and cause strange physical reactions. What about a world where humanitarianism is widespread and respected and there's no need to exploit developing countries? A world where people had integrity and the government realized that Americans consume much more than any other country and act accordingly to reduce greenhouse emissions.

Biophilia... I feel it in my daily walks with my dogs, my hikes, my trips to Sea World, and my actions to act as a band-aid to our beautiful awe-inspiring environment!!