Careful with the monkey! Ever since I can remember I've wanted a monkey. People tell me that it's like having a child who is permanently stuck at 2 years old. Meghan tells me I look like a monkey, so maybe that's why I want one. I'll probably never have a monkey, but before I die, I would like to interact with monkies in a natural setting. Meghan and I used to talk about going to work at a monkey sanctuary. It never happened.

Speaking of animals and Meghan, when we were kids I crushed an ant with a spoon and Meghan cried. She's always been so kind to fellow living creatures. One way to measure how she's feeling is to see how she reacts to sad animal stories. There seems to be a correlation between her own vulnerability and how she reacts to animal trauma and mortality. Poor girl. Her heart is too big for one chest cavity. Even without the impact of humans on other living organisms, animals still suffer. I always think of an example from one of my undergraduate philosophy courses: how can there be a benevolent God if innocent animals are made to suffer from natural cirucumstances like forest fires and food shortages. Sometimes I picture my sister as an old lady in her 80's with a trail of happy animals following her around her garden. Lucky animals. They haven't even been born yet. Unless she ends up with her very own tortoise sanctuary, in which case there's bound be be a tortoise-with-future-needs already alive and likely counting down the days until he/she gets someone as kind as Meghan to be it's advocate.