We’re having a hot spell in California and ants are visiting my kitchen again. They often seem to do so during a hot spell — a friend of mine who grew up here said they seek water… 

Whatever they’re after, they don’t seem to be interested in my food, fortunately — maybe because I have almost no sweet foods in my place… but anyway, there’s not many of them and they’re no real nuisance to me so I just let the few ants scuttle around my kitchen sink and stove — I ignore them, and they go about their business ignoring me. 

This morning, however, I was struck by two incidents that are certainly very common with ants but seemed particularly sweet to me today: the first was of one ant carrying a wounded companion; the other was of an ant carrying a crumb of something or other that she had found near my cooking counter and was taking somewhere totally unknown to me. I’ve seen ants do this very often, in real life as well as in documentaries on TV; yet, this morning, these two images struck me deeply, I felt some kind of kinship with these ants, and not even the vaguest thought of getting rid of them. When I saw the ant carrying a crumb of my food, I literally said to her, “Hello buddy, you found what you wanted?” 

Growing up as a child and teenager I didn’t really have much close contact with animals — a beloved pet dog that was put down when I was six (one of my earliest and most vivid memories), and a pet turtle that I adored but probably still saw from a somewhat anthropocentric perspective. 

I got closer to animals interacting with friends’ cats and dogs in high school and college. But it wasn’t until my early thirties, during a trip to South Africa, that I really got close to other animals and realized how sensitive and intelligent they are, how they can be moody and have their own unique personality just as humans do. 

I’ve always known rationally, scientifically, that we’re mammals, great apes; and I’ve always been respectful of & amazed by the natural world, especially from the viewpoint of botanics and geology. But I had never realized as deeply as I do now how much we’re just part of “one big whole”: now I understand this at a profound, instinctive level, and it’s a lovely feeling.