To be one with nature is to be eaten

Last night I watched Herzog's Grizzly Man long-awaited from Netflix. I was submerged in many bizarre sensations as I watched Timothy Treadwell's attempt to commune with nature

by spending his summers for 13 years in close quarters with massive grizzly bears, which he had granted names such as Freckles, Mr. Chocolate, Mickey, etc. He was in love with the bears for their perfection, and claimed to be their "protector". He expressed several times throughout the film his desire to be one of them in this beartopia of Alaska, and his distaste for human society. He longed to become a bear but as this is not possible but in cultures of magic or

reincarnation or Animorphs, he became an advocate for them instead by making his film documentary on his bear-enthusiasm and giving lectures at schools for free.

While Timothy had good intentions in being with the bears (perhaps Emerson's unity or the equalization of the species), he was clearly misguided. Timothy could have actually been putting the bears more at risk by acclimating them to humans, which in other situations could result in their being shot. And as an Alaskan Native American interviewed pointed out, the bear and human line had always been up kept in native culture for thousands of years, and to cross it was the most disrespect that could be given to the creature. Apart from that, Timothy was not the naturalist he strove to be in that he denied the predator-prey division (or union) and felt that this was something that could be smoothed over by sweet words. Unfortunately his affection could not counter-weigh the bear's hunger.

I wish Timothy could have been a bear. I too have felt at different points that I would have preferred to exist on this earth as a different species, to experience the world and time from the perspective of an insect (dragonflies have a 360 degree field of vision). While it can invoke wonder to imagine, at some point you have to come to terms with your flesh and mind as a human being. I do not think homosapien-hatred is the solution to the gripes we may have with where we are at in the development of our species; I find it frankly sad. We cannot escape into the fantasy of being another form to avoid responsibility. It is a strange paradox to love "nature" so much that you put animals and plants and on a pedestal to the point that you take hostages at the Discovery Channel Headquarters and threaten the lives of another kind of animal. While an appreciation of our co-inhabitants of this earth is necessary for the empathy to protect them, we have to keep that love healthily in check. We are animals too.