Scientists have recently discovered a trove of ancient stone tools used by – monkeys. Scientists have credited chimpanzees with the intelligence of five year old humans, and we all know high government officials with the intelligence level of a five year old, so that bodes well for the chimps, always assuming they tested too few chimps and missed the geniuses. I know a border collie smarter than some of my neighbors. And so it goes. We delude ourselves when we smugly believe we are the only animals capable of rational thought, especially considering how infrequently rational thought is observed among our species. Elephants routinely exhibit a  high level of intelligence, and my faithful old Irish setter, thought by many to be the dumbest dog ever bred, often looks at me with intelligent eyes, as if trying to speak to me. And I believe he is. No, the brain, be it the brain of a dog, a chimp or a human, is an unexplored and perhaps unexplorable labyrinth of byways and pathways that defies examination or understanding.

Why do my memories spring to life without my being there
How is it people long since gone have still new thoughts to share
Why does my dreaming brain still take me back to childhood’s end
Recalling shining faces of each kindergarten friend
We know that dogs remember things and chimps feel sorrow too
We know the whales sing lonely songs to others not in view
We look beyond the Milky Way into the vasty deep
And see the starry pinwheels spin and instantly we leap
Into the labyrinth and see and smell and hear the sounds
Of laughter and the joys of which the universe abounds
The labyrinth contains the soft sung music of the spheres
And best of all the labyrinth can bring from beauty, tears