Communicating Displeasure

I am glad people are not like squids. When a squid senses danger or that something is wrong, it lets out a dark ink and then makes a beeline toward safety. With luck, this ink-like substance confuses the source of the trouble and gives the squid enough of an opportunity to escape and return to doing whatever it is squids do all day. In today's world, I can't help but think if people were like squids, we would be spending all of our days either washing ink off ourselves or squirting people around us with ink. Life would be one constant orgy of ink squirting and ink cleaning. Hmmm. Is there ever a chance the squids could run out of ink? And what about skunks? Could they ever run out of that smelly substance they emit to defend themselves? And here's another question: What's worse, getting sprayed with squid ink or skunk spray? If the two creatures ever met on a lonely street like two gunslingers, who would win?

What squids and skunks do is a form of communication. Just as it with dogs when they growl or snap or bite. Cats hiss, scratch and also bite. All these examples represent very fundamental forms of communication that express different levels of uneasiness and displeasure. Any of us who have been on the receiving end of any of them know them to be effective ways of communication, too. (Full disclosure: I confess that I have never met anyone who has been squirted by a squid.) As humans, we view these examples of how animals communicate as being primitive and so much lower than how we, creatures situated at the top of the food chain, make our displeasure known. While I concede we do communicate negative feelings better than animals, I only do so grudgingly. Often times, we certainly don't do it as well as we could or should.

Not everything that goes on is our lives is to our liking. And, without question, often we are completely justified in being hurt, disappointed or upset at what we see or hear or even feel. At the same time, how we communicate our displeasure says much about is as a person. Are we honest, upfront, fair and respectful? Or do we lash out, purposefully seek to do harm to others, exaggerate our own reaction or not give any consideration to the possibility that we may have said or done something to warrant the negatives actions of others? The manner in which communicate displeasure is an important measure of us as individuals. I know I have room for improvement in that area and my guess is I am far from alone.