Not to mention an important source of bonding between mother and offspring.  Not to mention fun.  Play is a more and more neglected art, sad to say, in a world grown more and more serious, pressurized, intent on the “bottom line”.  The feral kittens in the backyard play, and it’s cool to watch, even as we know how short their lives are.

Humans, always striving, have created a culture of excess, which makes our lives much easier in some ways than our ancestors’ lives were.  This convenience comes at a price, though.  A price we pay because– well, there is only one market in town.  That very expensive one we call The Free Market.

Here is a great section from the audiobook of Yuval Noah Harari’s brilliant Sapiens: A Short History of Humankind.  He writes here about the transition in human consciousness, and our relation to animals, when we moved into the Age of Industrialized Agriculture to feed growing cities during the Industrial Revolution, which morphed quickly, thanks to mass production, into our current Consumer Age where thrift is no longer regarded as a virtue.  

I don’t own the copyright to this audiobook selection, clearly, but I heartily recommend Harari’s wonderful book.  Check out this seven minute fifty-eight second clip, it’s a good example of this fascinating work.