The Creature she studied

 Curiosity can make you do questionable things, like overtly pressuring a poor soul in a dinner party to talk about her work when she’s definitely depleted her social battery. To the person I’ve rattled with my less than welcome jibber-jabber, I apologize and give my thanks once again. To the readers, I’ll say that it is with great pleasure and her gracious consent that I can share her story with you.

She told me that she studies creatures for a living. Isn’t that sweet? Creatures, apparently unique enough to communicate in wildly different ways—all the while misunderstanding each other with unsurpassed creativity. 

But she continued to say that this creativity is a strong suit, you see. It is due to this ability that these creatures were able to develop themselves into beings utilising intelligence in just over a multitude of generations! How amazing is that?

Indeed, she has been observing them for years, but here’s a juicy titbit. It was from day one when she realized the creatures’ propensity for a destructive strain of habits. She showed the field of study that these animals are wired to hoard too much, even when they could not afford to do so. 

Many lose themselves in the act of constantly adding to the stockpile, and even more of them eat away at the very roots of what sustains their lives. Just weeks ago, one of her study cases tried to assert dominance by destroying its own home and dirtying its group’s common water source. And that’s considered a common occurrence in her research. Curious habits indeed.

Well, she reasoned that such caustic behaviours to their surroundings are obviously not congruent with the sustainability of their livelihoods.

I can see how it’s saddening to see your chosen species of study spiralling down to their demise, and I think that’s why she wished to abandon the field altogether many times. 

It’s not that she didn’t try hard enough, really. She said that she had lived with them since the beginning, and even deeply connected with them quite a few times. You don’t often see such wholeheartedness in research, do you? I was awed, I was.

But surprisingly, she felt more distant after familiarising herself with their behaviours. She told me that she began removing pieces of herself when occupying her identity as a researcher. 

Her choice dedicating her life to save her creatures requires a will of iron. She needs it, as she is always sanded by the crushing salt in all her tears mixed with the sea of Sisyphus’s sweat. 

Nonetheless, stripped of all rational hope for their doomed lives, she slugs on. Living for them. Helping and prodding them in the right direction, even if only by her smallest form of influence. Her purpose was to see the light of tomorrow for her beloved creatures. 

Admittedly, I’m not really an animal lover myself. Even so, I had a moment of warmth and inspiration listening to her dogged dedication for her work. 

She never told me which species the creatures belong to, but no matter. I hope that she will redeem them, and achieve her dream for the world.

She’s tired. But I hope she won’t give up.