In Search of ponies: Feeling alive

Everybody needs to smell a tiger now and then.

Why?

Because in that split second of imminent danger time freezes, and then suddenly everything starts accelerating.

Sheer terror feeds a pounding heart, every nerve and fiber of being goes on alert, and heat rushes to the face — defense and self-preservation sets in.

Muscles tighten and coil, the blood starts rushing and it's hard to breath.

As soon as the realization that it was a false alarm sets in, trembling takes over as one tries to steady themselves.

It takes work to bring the heart rate down, but with conscious effort, controlled breathing and soothing self-talk, the world rights itself and goes back to its normal, indistinguishable rotations.

Healthy.

Not just healthy, necessary and the essence of truly living.

There's a reason people ride roller coasters, bungee jump, sky dive, cliff dive, watch scary movies, listen to angry music, box and even pick fights.

Acknowledged or not, just as the body will scream to be quenched when it's deprived of liquid, the thirst for fear and triumph over danger screams from the depths of existence.

It is satisfied by the scent of a predator, an unusual sound, a challenging puzzle, a new, never-before-seen object, a strange flavor, a conflict riddled interaction, basically anything that kicks instincts into overdrive and jump starts the mind.

The fancy name is "Behavioral Enrichment," and sometimes you see it, sometimes you don't.

At professionally run animal facilities, it can take the shape of a bouncy red ball in the elephant pen, an empty bucket for the large birds, a length of rope or a swing in a tree for the monkeys.

It could be a clump of hair or even feces from a bear in the antelope pasture, or perhaps a barrel chewed on and rubbed against by a playful tiger for the deer.

Maybe it's a bitter or a sour fruit mixed into the dinner tray, or unshelled nuts that take work to open.

In the absence of such odd little additives, paths appear around the fence line.

Bald patches start to turn up, incessant chewing of toes and tails and cage furniture commences, dispositions turn sour or testy, bellies get larger, naps last longer and overall, everything is covered with a mundane, lackadaisical coating.

Problem solving, creative thinking, curiosity, fear, excitement, sadness, anger, play, joy — all the sensory, emotional, psychological and instinctual things you can imagine have their appropriateness and contribute to well-being.

And lacking the ability to control their own environments, animals will literally pace until they've worn a moat around their pen or self-destruct through neurotic behaviors, because they need to feel alive — to smell that tiger barrel.

Ironically, humans are just as susceptible, as they move quietly through their easy-going modern lives and sterile routines. For all the efforts made to eliminate fear, challenge, sadness and the like from the human condition, they really are one and the same, mutually exclusive if you will.

And though they often don't realize they are doing it, subconsciously humans create their own tiger barrels.

In a technologically easy world, where every convenience is accounted for, sometimes the only option left is to create problems just to have something to fix, procrastinate, then scramble to accomplish something under pressure, pick a fight just to have something to fight about, lift weights to have a reason to use muscles, run around a track because all the predators are tucked safely in zoos or hiding in state wildlife preserves, or jump off a cliff just to feel the adrenaline missing from the daily grind — all tiger barrels.

But what's truly ironic, is while humans easily recognize the animal need for behavior enrichment, they forge ahead with making mankind's habitat as safe and comfortable as possible and leave creation of their own tiger barrels in the hands of the subconscious.

Sharna Johnson is a writer who is always searching for ponies. You can reach her at:

[email protected] or on the web at: http://www.insearchofponies.blogspot.com