Was open
But it would let go
Only half a person at a time"
(Carlos Drummond de Andrade)
The morning shone like a diamond coming out of the hands of the goldsmith. The atmosphere was endowed with most perfect transparency. Crossing in an instant its vast parts as if they were unextended, sunlight reached the forest, where countless species shared the gifts of existence. Smells exotic and abundant fragrances scattered throughout the air of that idyllic place, as their inhabitants went ecstatic with the unspeakable splendor of the morning. A vigorous animation, an unusual élan filled up even the most languid beings, encouraging and almost ordering them that games were organized, exercises were performed, and all animals were engaged in dialogues, in order to crown with words the ultimate scene.
Of the animals who had built their home in the woods, only one enjoyed the prominence of a tacit royalty. And it was not the Lion, as one might guess, but the Monkey. The fine intelligence, the ability to think about life without getting lost in abstractions, together with the dexterity to perform what mind discovers, were the invisible scepter that lent the Monkey his undisputed royalty.
However, that morning, His Majesty contrasted with other inhabitants of the impressive green spaces that breathed in and out rhythmically. It is true that, like all other beings that lived in the woods, the thinker of the forest also felt inspired, even intoxicated, as one might say, by the spell emanating from every secret of the gigantic green. But unlike all other animals, the Monkey had a puzzled air, as he stared a beam of light, which materialized into a bundle of rays with an aspect of mist, which passed through the trees and reflected on the quiet surface of a puddle.
- Friend, you who are expert in the art of singing, but sing always hidden, tell me: why does light, which always displays itself in the firmament, hides like a Bird in this dark forest? What causes the being that reveals everything to conceal itself in the woods?
- Who calls me? Who speaks to me? Nightingale asked suspiciously. You, Monkey, you call me? What's your name?
- Monkey Glass is my name.
- How? Monkey what?
- Glass, noble singer. Monkey Glass.
- Oh, Glass! And who gave you such a weird name?
- My parents did. It could hardly be otherwise. It is an ancestral custom for Simian parents to nominate their children. Since the anthropoids differed from other primates, it has been so.
- Who were those other primates? asked the surprised Bird.
– Their name already tells us: they were primordial cousins to the Apes. But tell me why light which exhibits everything everywhere is pleased to hide in this forest? I'll simplify the question: why this beam of light hits the puddle?
- Oh, now I understand... You mean that puddle, don’t you? The light hits it, because it is on its way, said the Nightingale in a very meditative way.
- Of that I am deeply convinced, replied the caller. What encourages my intellect is not such things. It is rather the fluctuation of order. How can light, which sprinkles so freely in the ether, get trapped in the labyrinth of the woods?
- Oh, that I cannot answer, admitted the Nightingale. My flights are slow and low. I just can’t follow the light on its journeys, to unravel its mysteries and understand the whys of its trajectories.
At the sight of Monkey Glass discussing these things with the Nightingale, a group of Simian approached. Startled, the Nightingale flapped, and hid in a tree. The group was formed by three anthropoids: Monkey Tile, Monkey Earthenware and Monkey Potsherd. The first one asked:
- Brother, what were you talking with that Bird?
– How good it is you ask me! I really need to talk to you, said Monkey Glass. I'm in a dilemma. The other day I found a Monkey who had fled from the Research Center. He was beside himself. For a long time, he and other Monkeys were studied, even tortured by researchers who sought for drugs to combat human diseases.
– Really? exclaimed Monkey Tile. And why were they testing drugs for Men in Simian?
- Because of the genetic similarity between primate species, said Glass. Not to kill and torture other Men with dangerous drugs, they killed and tortured Monkeys!
– Blow me down! How can Men reach such extremes! How dare commit such atrocities! cried Monkey Tile in a fit of rage. Gradually, however, he softened and finished up:
- It is the old story of the genetic similarity between Men and Apes! They have cast this fame, this stigma, on us for almost 200 years! Still not enough and they begin to torture us and kill us, to understand how their organism works. That’s the limit! Human science has come to the apex of its contradictions...
- Exactly! I agree with what you say, interrupted Monkey Glass. I busied myself with these thoughts all morning. Enough of daydreaming about the similarity of Men and Apes! It's time to settle the issue. It's time to discover if Men and Apes have the same ancestry.
- Bravo! Monkey Potsherd shouted. They are totally unaware of the simian condition, of the hardships involved in being a Monkey. And regardless of it, they claim to be our relatives and start to kill us. Let's move to settle this matter, from beginning to end. Comrades, we must unite to investigate our origins!
Monkey Earthenware pondered:
- Men not even solved all the issue of their ancestry. They have discussed it for centuries, without reaching a consensus on important points. Cannot wait them do so. Let us do it ourselves. Let’s complete the survey they started.
- Bravo, bravo! shouted in unison the three other Apes.
At that exact moment, the stones that were around cried:
- It was time! It was time to do something, lest all animals in the world suffer the same abuses, lest the whole jungle is devastated!
The unexpected cry of the rocks shocked all forest dwellers. More than others, however, the four Monkeys were stunned. A few minutes later they recovered, and reflected about the scream that had hit their ears. They concluded that the stones actively supported their initiative, yet they censored the delay in taking it.
Then, the four beasts entered into a commitment. They vowed to spend all the effort they could to investigate and clarify, thoroughly, the riddle of their origin. Where did the Apes come from? How did they originate? Henceforth, those would be the questions they would strive to answer, at any cost.
And they devised a plan for that. They would go on a trip to the most diverse environments at their reach to seek answers to the questions just proposed. They would travel to a large glacier, a desert, a coastal forest and the seashore, to research and perhaps understand what causes life to arise and develop.
Thus, the door of truth opened to four new halves. Maybe they would become the first Apes to go through it. Anyway, our four friends dubbed "the great survey" the vast undertaking they had conceived. A typical human scholar would call it a Kafkaesque case.
