152
February 12, 1990
"Natural History"
c/o American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
New York, N. Y. 10024
Dear Friends:
I have been a subscriber to "Natural History" for many years
and treasure every copy. I read it from cover to cover. I
send a gift subscription to a nephew in Finland. He does the
same.
It would take a big book to outline my impressions. I would
like to outline some of the principles I have learned from
your magazine. You bring out the balance of nature. There
is a certain harmony and interdependence. I tell people
about the cheetah and the Thompson gazelles. The gazelles
live mostly on vegetation. The cheetahs mostly live on
gazelles. If a gazelle gets too slow, it becomes food for
the cheetah. If a cheetah is slow, it will starve to death.
I love the way various creatures on the planet sacrifice for
their young. I am particularly interested in the group
mammals. The young mammals are fed by the mothers. They are
protected by the group. They have access to some of the
group experience and knowledge. A high example would be
elephants. The older females appear to be the leaders. When
I was a child, the christian principles that I was taught
used the expression "sacrifice" a great deal. It meant to
sacrifice present pleasure for future gain. Paul the
Apostle, in Corinthians, likens every small church group to a
human body. The left hand does not fight the right hand. As
a group, they protected each other physically and
spiritually. They tried to avoid exploiting other people or
nature. Glorifying honest work was a central theme. Work and
sacrifice appear to be part of nature.
Turtles. I have talked to people for many years about
turtles. The little turtles hatch and struggle to reach the
water before they are devoured. Even then they are
vulnerable. But one in a hundred survives. All they have is
instinct.
I tell people that we are the supreme group mammals. We have
instincts, but we can escape the tyranny of instinct. It is
a special privilege to be high on the food chain. But we
must appreciate and sustain the various forms of life on which we depend.
I believe in evolution but I am not happy with the idea that
we are merely smart apes. There was a miracle in there
somewhere and I accept the miracle.
Many things that I have learned from your magazine I have
made part of my life. One example is an article you wrote
about the otters who live on islands north of Scotland. They
are land otters but get their food from the sea. There are
certain areas on the coast that suit their way of life. At a
certain time of the year, the fish move to deeper depths
beyond their reach. They become hungry and many die.
Autopsies reveal that they died of mercury poison. The sea
water in that area is high in mercury all the time. Why do
they only die from it when they are hungry? The theory
advanced is that a well-fed otter can fight off the effects
of the mercury. Today we are all subject to a variety of
poisons. I try to act like a well-fed otter and fight off
the poisons. I hope my T cells are able to fight off the
invaders. So I do all I can to sustain them.
Another thing I tell people, especially young men, is that
the males of the group mammals have an instinct to protect
the females and the young.
