Opossums

Shifting Perspectives

"I have to go get the clothes out of the washer before dark," I said to Pam last night.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because I don't want to run into a possum," I said.

"You need to change your view of possums," she said.  "They are wonderful.  They are our friends." (She went on to tell me that they are shy and easy-going and that they eat mosquitoes and bugs we don't like biting us.)

My washer and dryer are outdoors, but I made it before the possums started wandering.  (One night last week, I was considering going for a coke and ran into a possum enjoying my improvised bird bath, so I decided to just get a coke from the fridge.)


Then this morning, I related it to Betty who was talking about changing the ways our brains are wired to like or not like certain things.

She told me a story:  Years ago, she saw a mama possum coming onto her deck to pick up her four babies after a day of foraging for food.  Betty watched, fascinated, as she patiently waited for the babies to climb on her back, how she helped them when they fell.  "It was one of the dearest things I've ever watched," she said.  "Such a beautiful image of motherhood."

Joy, too, has insisted that I try to shift my perspective on possums (opossums, technically).  Betty and I thought Joy should write a children's book about possum mamas and babies!

Three in a row and my perspective is shifting--just a tiny bit.

We can change how we see things if we know more, and I'm going to give it a try next time I run into one.  (They can't help it that they remind me of rats!) (They can't help it that they don't match my inner definition of beauty!)

While I'm talking about animals, get this:

According to the book I read on taxonomy: It turns out that whales are actually ungulates, the family to which deer belong!  And bats?  They may look like flying rodents but they are actually related to camels!

When I told Elena that, she said, "Well, that's just not right!  No way!"

Everything we know, or think we know, is subject to revision if we're curious.  The question is: to what extent does knowledge override our long-held prejudices?