Playing Games

While I was in Kenya, I thought, this is the way people should be living. Fuck all the little games we play and all the roundabout ways in which people get things done and all the distractions people put in front of themselves everyday to distract from whats real and whats happening now. It always freaks me out how “out of touch” we are living in big cities in little boxes, busying ourselves on weekends by buying stuff and watching movies about other peoples lives so we can forget about our own for a little bit. And you know what really freaks me out? The question “What do you do?” actually meaning “How do you make money?”, like that’s the thing that’s come to define our lives. But in Kenya, so much of it actually, was the same. In simpler terms of course but still, the same. (We were in a region called the Maasai Mara and got to see the beginning of the wildebeest migration). One source of major frustration for me is the games that people play with each other, constantly trying to outdo and impress each other. And in dating, all the little bullshit games people play. And it was the same damn thing with the wildebeest! We stopped in the middle of a herd and watched how they all interacted. They were all mating and the males would claim a territory and defend it to no end, charging and butting heads with any male who came into their little circle, hoping a female would be interested in the property they’ve invested in and mate with them. And there’s this species of birds where, after finding a female, the male will spend weeks building a nest for her. Then she’ll go check it out and if it doesn’t meet up to her expectations, she’ll leave and he’ll build another one. Sometimes, they’ll spend months building nest after nest, each one bigger and more plush than the last one until finally, the lady bird approves, moves in and starts pumping out the eggs. And my favorite was watching the baboons. They were the most manipulative little guys ever! First off, there are classes that are strictly followed. Usually, elders are respected in the group but a younger monkey of a higher class with get priority over an elder of a lower class. Babies are really valued in their society because a mother with a baby will get priority over a group in terms of places to sleep and food and treatment by the other members of the pack. So the baboons will try to steal babies from other mothers so they will get that priority. And males will steal babies to prove to the females that they can take care of it and are responsible and would be a good mate. Its like how women will be attracted to a single guy with a puppy because puppies are a lot of work so he obviously must not be afraid of commitment and responsibility.
Its reassuring to see that all these little games, distractions, society filled with classes and expectations, its not just us.