Imagine the loneliness of speaking a language that only you can understand. Researchers have been studying a whale, who communicates in a language not recognizable by other whales. This whale has spent over two decades looking for a friend who will understand him.
Dogs and Humans: Evolutionary Friends
Topher Brophy described himself as a self-absorbed narcissist. He played competitive sports obsessively to keep his mind off of his empty life. Then one day, Brophy hurt his back. Suddenly, he was forced to slow down and take a good hard look at his life.
Man’s Best Friend… And Counselor
Like many people in Uganda, Charles Watmon has difficulty living with the things he saw and did as a soldier. An unexpected friend now helps him shoulder the burden. That friend’s name is Ogen Rwot and she is a cute, friendly, caramel-colored dog. For a decade, Watmon fought on both sides of Uganda’s civil wars, first for the Lord’s Resistance Army, then for the Ugandan government. The experience was traumatic. To make matters worse, he learned that he was HIV positive toward the end of his time in the military, and soon lost his wife and his two children to AIDS. After the war ended, he suffered flashbacks and panic attacks. He even thought about suicide.
Black Man Befriends Racists
Daryl Davis is a black man who has made a name for himself befriending white supremacists. Davis learned about racism at a young age. In 1968, the ten-year-old boy was marching in a Boy Scouts parade when people started throwing rocks and bottles at him. He thought that they must really hate the Boy Scouts until he realized none of the other boys was getting hit. Davis was the only black Boy Scout marching that day. When he got home, his parents explained that there were people in the world who hated him because of the color of his skin. From that day onward, he became fascinated with racism.