Monkey Voiceover

I am going to start a crusade for snow monkeys in Juneau. I'm just not sure that I can continue a joyful life without monkeys. I don't want the scary monkeys who snatched a baby four years ago and dropped her off a roof. Those cause me great concern, but we love watching a family of spectacled leaf monkeys at the beach. The could be the cutest things since Monchichi. They look like they are wearing little glasses and choose leaves over human garbage.

The best aspect of watching these Harry Potter monkeys is coming up with commentary. I'm sure there are researchers out there who can watch monkeys without doing voiceovers, but I'm not sure there are many other people. "Hey Bob, can you get this itch on my butt?" "Hey Louie, you have got to try these leaves!" It's addictive. I love watching the moms and little ones. I've said everything she is thinking when they are hanging off of her while she is trying to do something.

But monkeys probably aren't thinking anything like I imagine (except mom monkeys when her kids are hanging on her - I think that's universal annoyance across the entire animal kingdom). People who study monkeys probably want to slap folks like me who try to make monkeys in my image.

I realized as I was speaking for the monkeys, that I do it for people too. I make way too many assumptions of what people are thinking or I have running dialogues in my head where I guess what he or she would say. That's not helpful.

There are many times as strangers and guests here that we have no choice but to listen, mainly because we have no clue what we are doing. We have to let people tell their stories, give their impressions, offer their help because there aren't enough hours in the day to research all that information on the computer. Ignorance makes me listen. Arrogance leads to the assumptions that we know what others think, feel or would say.

It's still fun to do monkey voices, but I am going to try to let everyone else speak for him or herself.