The Cave Painting and the Grave

From the earliest man we can see two things that separate us from the rest of the animals on the planet, the cave painting, and the grave.  Oh yeah, I get the whole opposable thumb thingy but that is a mechanical difference.  The cave painting and the grave tell us that early man was aware of himself and thought about himself as an individual, and as mortal.   

 

The cave painting represents an awareness of self and others.  Carnivores of other species hunt and kill to eat but none of them tell the story of how and why.  Instinct drives their behavior and Darwin helps us to understand that those whose instinct and physical ability are the strongest survive to pass down these traits to the next great hunter.  When lion cubs play, they are practicing the skills that they will need to survive and pass along their genes. Those that survive will live to hunt and, when they are not hunting, they are resting, or actually passing along those genes. But our cave dweller artist is taking something that he has seen and freezing what is in his mind forever in time and space.  What he has put on the cave wall is something that either he, or his mate, or his tribe will be able to see after the fact, and after the painter is no longer there. No other animal does that.  He is aware of self.  Your dog knows it’s time to eat, no doubt about that, but it is not concerned about the future.  That is part of why they are great to be around, they exist in the immediate time.  There is no sense of tomorrow. But man knows that there is tomorrow, and that he will be a distinct part of that. 

 

I may have mentioned earlier that I love horses.  If I failed to mention it, well I do.  Like our dog above, they exist in the here and now.  Like the dog that makes them wonderful to be around and also requires the handler to be careful of their thoughts.  Had a bad day at work?  Better stow that before you get down to the barn because your horse will know your mood better than you do.  They do that because the ability to read the herd is part of what helps them survive, and that instinct is something that is so deeply ingrained in their being that it is just a part of them. It is their nature.  But the horse is not thinking about your mood, it is reacting to it.  If it has food, and warmth, and a herd, and a leader (a fascinating discussion for another time perhaps) it is in a good place.  Eliminate any one of them and the horse will react.  But, like the dog, it is not worrying about tomorrow. Because their very survival depends on the behavior of the herd as a whole, horses are aware of death. When one of the herd dies, there is most certainly a period of time where that loss is felt by the remaining animals.  The herd is a survival unit, so the loss of a member by definition effects the others. But even with that complex relationship, what they do not do is to create a remembrance of those that went before them. 

 

But humans do. 

 

The earliest man did this. 

 

This is the awareness of the possibility of something beyond this life.  That is not to say that animals do not have death rituals, but they have them for a very different reason.  A horse senses from millennia of instinct that, when it gets old and can no longer keep up with the herd, that it will die in a horrible fashion.  That is why most animals conceal their pain or declining health.  A dog that senses its time has come generally seeks solitude and shelter so that it won’t be attacked.  But neither the horse nor the dog is worried about what comes after they pass. 

 

But man is.  Why is that?

 

“Who am I?” is a question that implies individuality, a sense of self as separate from others.  “Why am I here?” flows from the first question.  If man knows that he is an individual then, by necessity he must ask the second question.  As it was the lion’s nature that makes him hunt, or the dog’s nature that makes him seek shelter when it passes, and it is just as innate in man to wonder who he is and why he is here.  It is ingrained in us just as firmly as the prey instinct is to the dog, and the flight herd instinct is to the horse.  We are wired to ask those questions.

 

We are different. 

 

Why does any of this matter?  Why is this article on this website to begin with?  It matters because, before we discuss any important matter, it is important to understand what it is we are looking for, and why are we looking for it in the first place.  I mentioned Admiral Stockdale’s admiration of the Stoic philosophy in my personal introduction because it is an excellent jumping off point for the exploration of any thought. The Stoic philosophy that Stockdale so admired can be found in odd places.  In the movie “The Silence of the Lambs” the character Hannibal Lector quotes Marcus Aurelius’ stoic reflection, “Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?”  No, I am not asking you to rub lotion on your skin here, I am asking you to think of yourself, and mankind and reflect on “What is it in itself?  What is its Nature?”  And further, what makes us unique in creation? 

 

Of course, there is no easy answer to that question but that does not mean we should not be asking it of ourselves constantly.  Also, as I mentioned in my personal introduction, the philosophy of the ancients fascinates me.  Before people walked around with their noses in electronic devices, the most brilliant people in the world were contemplating these fundamental questions about nature.  While science has made huge advances since the time of the Greeks and Romans, human nature has remained the same.  The lessons of the Stoics, and what was true to Marcus Aurelius, is applicable today. 

 

Perhaps we should be listening to what they have to tell us.    

 

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