There are times I hike out to the woods and find a nice spot where I can't hear the lawn mowers, the car horns and tires, the barking dogs. I don't smell the exhaust fumes and fertilizer. Nothing around me but birds, breeze, animals scurrying around, bugs in the grass.
These moments are so precious. I can turn the modern brain off for a bit and just be an animal in nature.
One downside of being a lizard: there's always the risk that while you're enjoying your nice nap in the sun, a bird of prey is barreling down on you with the speed and precision of a fighter jet and you won't even know it until you've been violently jerked awake. Just in time to realize that you are completely fucked.
So, you know, it's a tradeoff. No student loans, or really any responsibilities, but also dramatically higher risk of sudden violent death.
Impeccable timing! I just said to be the smartest species, we sure are dumb. None of the rest of the flora and fauna are the reason for extracting most of the planet, and eying the East and West’s wars du jour, maybe the planet. 😅
There's also the fact that throughout the history of civilization we have to spend more time working to exist as population density increases.
India 70 hour average working week, European cave man 20 hour working week, one mammoth is a lot of food.