Interactions with God #65

I am not really big into nature shows, but if there is nothing else on, I will give it a go.  On the day in question, there was nothing else on.  I was watching PBS!  We didn’t have cable, so my options to watch were limited to the 5 or 6 channels that we could get.   My favorite was channel 50, because they played old movies and Star Trek episodes.  You know it’s bad when all you have to watch is a nature program on PBS.

This particular program was titled: Eternal Enemies: Lions and Hyenas.   The show was actually really interesting.  The whole program revolved around a research team chronicling one lion pride and a one competing hyena pack.  The two groups, of course, as the title suggests, didn’t get along. 

There were several animals which the researchers had given names.  One in particular was a hyena cub named Princess.  Princess was the child of the current matriarch of the pack.  Hyenas are led by a female, while the lions are dominated by a male.  Princess was treated, well, like a princess by everyone in the pack.  She was, after all, being groomed to eventually lead the group.  Unfortunately, after a skirmish with the lions, the matriarch was killed.  Princess was not yet old enough or strong enough to take leadership of the pack, so another female took the lead. 

Once princess lost her “status”, all the pack began to treat her badly, even the young cubs.  Astonishingly, the little hyena went a bit nutty.  The stress, the change, and the lack of understanding, clearly affected her.  Because of it, she began to wander off and in doing so, crossed the boundary lines marked by both hyena and lion.  This created a war.  Princess, unwittingly had taken the scent of her pack well into the lion’s territory.  The ensuing war not only greatly diminished the numbers of the hyena pack, but also roused the anger of the male lion.  This monster sized animal’s response was to kill the new hyena leader.  The show ended with that male lion’s action. It was brutal and very final.  

After the show ended, I sat there for a moment, amazed.  I marveled at how these animals, both lions and hyenas acted so much like humans.  They had relationships that were tenuous. They did bizarre posturing, with cut throat antics to climb the ranks of their respective groups.  There was deception, collusion, and even back stabbing.  Quite frankly, it was mind blowing to me.  I spoke aloud to no one but myself and God. “Wow, they act just like people!”

He replied, “No, you act like them.”

Yea, sadly, He was right.  We do.