We retain this brain. To this we evolved the limbic brain (mammalian), what makes us care for our young, bond, be able to empathize, communicate and play … and why when we look into the eyes of one another, or another mammal, we see soul, we feel a sentient being. It initiates mutual caring. If that frog in the example were actually in the boiling water calling out, would it tear at your heart the way a baby?s cry does, or the wailing of your dog when you leave in the morning??To this, we evolved the neocortex, the crowning glory of the homo sapiens. Or is it? Magnificent as it may be, it has its limitations. The lower brain will always rule, emotions will always take precedence, because they?re necessary for survival. When we experience fear ? and in today?s world our fear can be 1040x1010x410 mm cellulose sponge blocks totally symbolic (your boss yelling at you) ? we get ?hijacked.? We are ?flooded? with emotion which is specifically designed to shut down our ?thinking? (our ability to reason) and we act, i.e., we act without thinking. We are constantly at risk of the tiger within us becoming confused and primitive, like Montecore, and doing something we would not ordinarily do.Montecore has been performing for many years. Something went awry, something was different, and he reverted to self-preservation tactics, by all reports. In the fight or flight, he decided not to attack anyone, but to get himself and Roy to safety. If he attacked Roy, the same principle applies and we will never really know.Something emotional happened, and among mammals, emotions are contagious.
You know this if you?ve been in a newspaper office the day they announced it was closing, or been around when someone got chastised in public. Was it something with Roy, the same thing that caused this magnificent physical specimen to slip and fall? His birthday? Wondering, as I do, why the fascination with the ?big hair.? (How many friends of mine have told me their cats love to lick hair-sprayed hair? or did it look like ?fur? to Montecore?) Was he overly tired and less able to concentrate ? having celebrated his birthday, or being about to? Was he preoccupied with thoughts of the Big 6-0 on the horizon?When Roy fell, it was something Montecore had never seen happen on stage before. If he was bonded with Roy, he may have feared for Roy, who knows. But it was change ? big change ? that thing that throws all of us. Then the stage hands rushed out, more commotion ? fear. One reverts. Bad things can happen. We can hurt people we love. We can hurt ourselves. Prey as we are to the tiger within, all we can do is be aware, and to learn to manage. This is Emotional Intelligence.
And this, Roy understood about his beloved tiger. It wasn?t Montecore?s ?fault??nor do we routinely ?blame? animals, lacking a neocortex as they do. However, in regards to humans, we continue to battle this out in the courts, and in our own hearts and minds. It is for sure we never want that to be said about us. That ?I didn?t mean to kill her, I love her,? or ?I don?t know what came over me,? or ?That wasn?t like me.? We are as capable of as serious injury to others as Montecore is, and when we disable our neocortex, we are left with the same equipment Montecore has.Our prayers are for all concerned, including the show?s workers, described as ?family,? who must also cope with possibly losing their jobs, another EQ dilemma. Because we are humans, our brains are often at odds with one another and we suffer conflict, guilt and shame. As one worker said in the news, it was awful to be worrying about herself at that time, but she was a single mother and it was her job. Let us say the means of preservation for herself and her children. We must keep learning about our emotions. As Childre and Martin say, ?The emotional frontier is truly the next frontier to conquer in human understanding. The opportunity we face now ? is to develop our emotional potential and accelerate rather dramatically into a new state of being.
dew