Instinct

There is not all that much I believe in, but I do believe there is A LOT we don't know or, because we are not able to quantify with our machines or senses, unable to name insofar. I suppose for this reason some sensations can easily be ignored or attributed to something trivial. 

        But I am a great fan of what we otherwise call instinct. The part of our brain that is able to piece together hints otherwise unrecognizable to conscious effort, and put up flags. That part of our survival sense that makes you notice something that, for all intents and purposes, shouldn't matter, because it could just as well be imagination or paranoia.

        Not sure who, but someone did this study that you can make people afraid of photos of snakes - more exactly snakes on photos - a lot faster than you can convince people that they should find photos of stuff like light switches or coffee mugs frightful. I am not afraid of snakes, in fact I find all small things equally annoying and wish they went somewhere else, but I will switch to a very prudent stance regardless of what my education tells me is a threat or is not a treat. I don't like small things because I worry that if I try to remove them or help them out of horrible situations they have found themselves in, I will do more damage than good. Trying to help a mouse from a cat playing with it usually results in me accidentally breaking something. usually in the mouse. So, fuck that.

       The time General and I both saw a woman in rural Croatia walking a dog that simply was not a dog, both of us reacted intuitively, looking at one another and then staring back. Not because the animal was larger than most dogs or seemed aggressive in any way. But simply, because that was not a dog. One may act carefully if meeting a large stray dog out in the open, you never know and do not want to get rabies, but to encounter a wolf in any circumstance, the instinct comes on like a flare. 

       When you encounter any kind of a predator in the woods, larger than a hare, even if you do not see them or hear them, you will know, and your senses will sharpen up so amazingly, it's almost like a trip. Not because of fear. I am not scared of them. I don't run away screaming and pee myself if I meet a boar. but I am very very careful and try to make it very clear I wish to have nothing to do with its daily stroll in the woods. Which may be mildly hypocritical, since that usually happens when we are hunting, but okay. I am not a hunter. I am an admirer. I carry nothing on my person that would effectively defend me from a physical confrontation. If anything, I carry a small sleigh bell to make animals understand I am absolute of no threat to them whatsoever and they can hear me a mile away. so, I walk upon a lot of wildlife often. I can't see them and can't really smell them with what I have for a nose (doesn't work, mine), but I can often tell they are very close by the way nothing moves, nothing sounds, nothing breathes, nothing matters other than a relationship between us that may end in a fatality, if it ever develops out of the standstill.