170. Species Loneliness: Understanding Our Need for Animal Connections – Insights from Richard Louv’s book, Our Wild Calling.

[00:00:00] Welcome to Episode 170, which is a Girl, Take the Lead soundbite. And that's a shorter episode, which may be a bit more about a topic we've covered like our episode today or quick inspiration. And I'm your host, Yolanda Canny. After hearing Soparna in our last episode talk about sea

[00:00:27] turtles and coyotes, I knew I wanted to learn a bit more about how we connect with animals. So I found a book, Our Wild Calling, How Connecting with Animals Can Transform Our Lives and Save

[00:00:41] Theirs by Richard Louvs, a book that offers hope. While the reviews and title of the book were wonderful or really got me was the amazing wolf picture on the front cover. I'm telling you, pulled me right in. Similar to the different causes Soparna mentioned, this book

[00:01:04] makes a case for protecting, promoting and creating a sustainable and shared habitat for all creatures. Not out of fear, but out of love. Enjoy the listen. And here you go. So a little bit about our author, Richard Louvs. He's authored 10 books, including

[00:01:25] Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle. He's launched an international movement to connect children, families and communities to nature. He is co-founder and chair emeritus of the nonprofit Children and Nature Network. And in 2008, he was awarded the

[00:01:44] Audubon Medal. Past recipients have included Rachel Carson and Sir David Attenborough. This book was published in 2020. The very first page of this book offers us this quote from John Berger from About Looking, a book that explores our role as observers to reveal

[00:02:08] new layers of meaning in what we see. Quote, with their parallel lives, animals offer man a companionship different from any other offered by human exchange. Different because it is a companionship offered to the loneliness of man as a species. Well, truly a tone setting quote for

[00:02:33] the book. And perhaps all of us have a story with our own encounters and longer term relationships with other animals while they're domestic. My very first one was when I was probably about

[00:02:49] five or six years old, and I was hanging out with chipmunks when I went to sleep away camp. Or there was this tortoise my dad brought home when he was marine at 29 ponds. And I think today

[00:03:03] that's why I think the tortoise is my spirit animal. And I've always treated my pet dogs and cats as part of the family. Haven't you? I know. Just go on Instagram. You see all the videos.

[00:03:17] I know my friend, she's who you've probably glimpse time to time on our video recordings of some of these episodes seem as though they're connected to my body as another appendage.

[00:03:30] Then I also have a strong affinity to birds of any kind. My husband and I seem to feed all the birds in Menlo Park, California on our walks or even in our backyard. I'm so grateful every

[00:03:44] day I walk outside surrounded by heritage oak trees and rocks. I'm sure the Eloni Indians used as their kitchen as a child from a rather dysfunctional home, my trips to sleep away camp or my solace,

[00:03:58] a place to feel safe, and a place where I could bury my nose in the sweet vanilla butterscotch smell of the ponderosa pines. And I went there every year until I was in 12th grade.

[00:04:14] How about you? What's your story? Feel free to contact me and let me know. I have folks in the show notes. One connection Louv makes is that in the so-called information age, humans are even more out of

[00:04:31] tune. He seems it as a perfect storm of digital distraction, fear of strangers, poor urban design, competitive over scheduling, and economic insecurity. And that it separates us from one another in the natural world. As a result, alarming new research suggests the growth of what somehow

[00:04:56] officials call an epidemic of loneliness. The Vic H. Murthy, former U.S. Surgeon General said this, quote, we live in the most technologically connected age in the history of civilization, yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s. In a 2010 survey on loneliness, AARP

[00:05:22] estimated that 42.6 million Americans over age 45 suffer from chronic loneliness. According to recent census data, more than a quarter of the U.S. population lives alone. Over half are unmarried and marriage rates and number of children per household have declined. In Britain,

[00:05:45] the Economist reports that half a million people regularly go up to a week without seeing anybody. In 2018, a generational study by Cigna surveyed over 20,000 U.S. adults and included each generation, oldest to youngest. From the greatest gen to boomers to millennials to Gen Z, they found Gen Z

[00:06:13] is more socially isolated with the greatest generation the least lonely and Gen Z the loneliest. Lou talks about species loneliness, which is that nine fear that we are alone in the universe with a desperate hunger for connection with other life. And it's that fear that moves us

[00:06:40] to want to restore our relationship with place and others to put it another way. Modern humanity yearns to reestablish and restore an ecology of shared identity. And there's decades of research to support this. Some doctors are writing nature prescriptions

[00:07:03] to encourage families to spend more time outdoors in natural settings. Parks with the most biodiversity have the greatest beneficial impact on human psychological health. He states to a degree, some people are self-medicating with animals.

[00:07:23] Over the past decade in the U.S., the growth in pet ownership has outpaced total household growth. He makes the point because of species loneliness, while we pull our pets close, we still need connection with wildlife and animals. And they are appearing in our suburbs

[00:07:46] and cities in unprecedented numbers. True connectedness is not a simple thing to describe. It can be a charged encounter, a web of relationships among friends and family or with other life forms, an ongoing love. Or for some, coming in contact with the universal power or

[00:08:10] presence. Kind of like our episode about near-death experiences where experiencers stated being brought to a language beyond words. One of the many stories in the book includes the one from oceanographer Paul Dayton and his encounter with an octopus. I like to read you his story.

[00:08:34] Okay, so maybe it'd be good for you to know a little bit about octopus because that's what Paul Dayton encountered. Octopus suckers are capable of taste and smell and an octopus may also be able to see with its skin, which contains gene sequences associated with light sensing retina.

[00:08:55] And he got wrapped up by this octopus. So here's the story. It pushed my mass down and I'm hanging on to my regulator with my teeth. And I'm starting to panic and trying to rip its arms off me.

[00:09:12] An octopus's arms look soft and squishy, but they are not. They're like steel when they grip you. I was going to lose the battle. For some reason, I relaxed completely. I let the octopus pull me

[00:09:27] down and I could feel him, her probably, relax a little bit too. My legs were bent and my feet touched bottom. Then I pushed off hard. The octopus and I started going up. She was wrapped all around

[00:09:44] my head. I was aware of her large three jawed beak attached to a large poison sack. The beak was right behind my bare neck. Every 10 feet or so, I would take another sip of air. Then I didn't

[00:10:04] have any more air. The octopus's face moved around my head and she looked at me. She slowly began to disentangle from me and we held eye contact all the way up. And then we popped up to the surface

[00:10:22] of the ocean, the octopus and I off eagle point. I pulled my mask off and as I got my bearings and put my mask back on, here is this octopus with its big eyes just sort of pulling back.

[00:10:38] She's looking at me and I'm looking at her. And at least in my mind, we communicated something interest or respect. She slowly moved away from me. Without breaking her eye contact,

[00:10:53] she started to make her arms into what looked like the wings of a space shuttle. She was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in the sea. And as her arms came out, her big body

[00:11:09] flattened and she started blighting down. Then Dayton did the unexplicable. He took a deep breath and dived after the octopus. He followed her down as far as he could straining to see her in the darkness.

[00:11:25] As she disappeared, she was still looking at me. I remember thinking we have a non-aggression pact. Oh boy, what a story. It reminded me of Edgar Mitchell's report on Apollo 14 in our episode 166 where awe in the connectedness of seeing something much larger than ourselves

[00:11:55] and something you can't explain. There's an intimacy like a shared heart and it is impossible in those moments to feel alone. There's a lot of research that humans are not the only species whose communicative system is underpinned by a kind of linguistic

[00:12:16] common ground between species like ingestors. Research has identified 58 different types of gestures used by chimpanzees as an AA-milm best known for winning the poo books observed. I worked at the tech museum back in 2002. I did an ad that included a dog robot tied to a tree outside the

[00:12:51] museum just like you would do with a live dog. I'll put the ad on my website in the blog section so you can see it. Lou raises this question with AI. Will we develop the kind of connection to

[00:13:04] engineered animals that we feel for domestic and wild animals? Yeah, I don't know. I know our ad was engaging warm and inviting and the robotic dog had acuteness to him. I see another live

[00:13:19] animals. Maybe the story we have about engineered animals could also just get us over the hump if we need it, just like we do with stuffed animals. But there's something about connecting with the warmth and the feel of a live animal that's just hard to beat.

[00:13:40] Some takeaways I had from the book. Lou talks about the emotional support and companionship our pets offer and that this relationship often goes beyond basic interaction, fostering deep emotional bonds that can alleviate our feelings of loneliness and depression. Just

[00:13:59] ask anybody who's lost a dog or cat. It takes a while, man, for the grief to work through. The unconditional love and loyalty exhibited by our pets can have profound positive effects on our emotional well-being. He also discusses how some pets have the ability to empathize

[00:14:20] with human emotions. They can often sense when their owners are sad, anxious or happy and respond accordingly. This empathetic connection enhances the emotional bond and creates a sense of mutual understanding between humans and our pets. This connection

[00:14:42] can lead to psychological benefits such as reduced stress anxiety and improved mood. Lou's site studies showing that petting the dog can release oxytocin, a hormone associated with bonding and happiness, which reinforces the emotional connection between humans and dogs.

[00:15:00] I love that oxytocin, right? Animals have always played a role in the spiritual quest as avatars, messengers and symbols. This is particularly true with Indigenous cultures, of course, and also as part of other religious traditions. Our moral challenge will intensify

[00:15:25] as we recognize that our connection to other animals is unattainable through technology alone and is deeper even more than biology. Our coexistence with animals is essential to the survival of all species. Consequently, protecting our extended family is ultimately

[00:15:46] an issue of rights, the rights of human beings to a nature connection and the rights of nature itself. For me, I've got to admit that as I read this book and thought about it,

[00:16:01] I kind of like the idea that wild animals have their space and are kept wild. Because when I see a coyote walking down my street, I am filled with fear and I know Lou

[00:16:16] talks about making these changes from love. But man, the first emotion that comes up is fear, like how dangerous is this animal? And we scope each other out because I could be very dangerous to them too. And so it's not so black and white for me, I think.

[00:16:37] Lou says that the only way people come to truly care about animals is to know them, to immerse themselves in the flow of nature and the lives of animals, including the ones who can hurt us. Hmm, got to think that one through a little bit.

[00:16:54] And in his other book, Last Child in the Woods, Saving Our Child from Nature Deficit Disorder, he discusses the fear and danger associated with children connecting with animals and nature. He argues that societal changes and heightened fears of danger have contributed to a significant

[00:17:17] decline in children's direct experiences with nature. He suggests that modern parents, influenced by media reports and societal anxieties, often fear for their children's safety outdoors, which limits children's opportunities to explore and interact with the natural world,

[00:17:37] including animals, kind of like what I probably did a sleep away camp. He emphasizes that while there are legitimate dangers in nature, the benefits of children interacting with animals and natural environments far outweigh the risks. He believes these interactions are crucial for healthy child development,

[00:17:58] fostering a sense of empathy, responsibility and connection to the natural world. He also criticizes the tendency to over protect children, which can lead to a generation that is disconnected from nature and unaware of the environment's importance.

[00:18:16] This is where I can be really grateful for my own campfire girl experiences sleep away camps and Girl Scouts for my daughters. They help us see a balanced approach, where children are given the freedom to explore and connect with nature while being educated about

[00:18:39] potential risks and how to handle them responsibly. This Louv argues is essential for nurturing a healthier, more environmentally conscious and resilient generation. And on that note, we'll end today's episode. Thanks for being here. Thank you for listening today and we sure hope you enjoyed this episode.

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[00:19:32] search at girltakelead.com. And you can see a video of this episode on YouTube music. Our next episode will continue our conversation about connections. I had a recent experience after 50 years of connecting with my sorority friends.

[00:19:51] I'd like to share with you because that was all about wanting to be connected. Please join us again and talk to you soon. Bye!