Page 30 of Sending Love Letters to Animals

“Right,” I said. “I guess.”

Jules rolled her eyes, her arm slipping from mine so she could walk through the classroom doorway. I followed her inside.

“I hope you’re not this boring for movies,” Jules said as she slid into her seat.

I did my best to laugh at her, pretending that she was imagining my attitude, before slipping into my seat at her side. Ms. Tabatabai was already standing at her podium at the front of class. That was unusual for her, since she was generally finishing up her lunch at her desk when we all arrived in class. However, that wasn’t the most unusual thing I noticed.

On the interactive white board behind her, she had written a confusing—and slightly alarming—message to us.

We’re all animals.

What did that even mean? Was she insulting us? Was she upset that nearly every pair in her class wasn’t making much headway on their project yet? We all had ten weeks to go before time was up, so it wasn’t like we were getting close to the deadline. It was possible someone had done something bad, and we were all going to get a talking to about it. Ms. Tabatabai didn’t look upset, though. In fact, she looked like she always did on a Friday—highly caffeinated and ready for two days away from A.M. Whitemane.

Jules had noticed the message as well, so while the rest of our class arrived and got settled into their seats, we exchanged confused looks. Unlike most days, Ms. Tabatabai didn’t give us all a minute or two to calm down from lunch. One look from her and we all knew to shut our mouths and listen up. It wasn’t an angry look, but it was definitely serious.

Something strange was going on.

When the room was deathly quiet, Ms. Tabatabai’s eyes began looking around the room, connecting with each student in turn.

Finally, she spoke:

“Do you all know what Lewis Carroll said about man? Meaning the human race?” she asked.

“The Alice in Wonderland guy?” someone at the back of the room asked.

“Yes,” Ms. Tabatabai said. “The ‘Alice in Wonderland guy.’”

She waited for a moment. When it became clear that no one had an answer for her, she began speaking again.

“The proper definition of a man is an animal that writes letters,” she said.

Everyone in the class was more confused than they were with her first question.

“Most quotes from famous people—especially those who are dead and can’t be asked for clarification—can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Especially if the famous person was a poet or author, predisposed to hidden meanings in their words.”

We all waited.

“One could say that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the higher level of communication that human beings possessed compared to say, a bear or a wolf,” Ms. Tabatabai explained. “Or that we’re more eloquent when we use our forms of communication. Or we use more words to communicate. Or that human beings long to explain themselves to each other, to be understood.”

No one in the class offered their thoughts, nor did anyone pose questions.

“I would say that a lot of that was what Lewis Carroll meant,” she said. “But I would also say that the things we do, our behaviors, our jokes, our dreams—everything we do and say is our way of reaching out.”

“To who?” Jules asked.

“To whoever will listen.” Ms. Tabatabai looked over at her. “All human beings want connection—whatever that means to them. They want to find someone, a community, a friend, a lover, someone to hear them. To understand them.”

More silence was all we provided to our teacher.

“Human beings desperately need other human beings—for a variety of reasons—but one of the ways we find meaning, comfort, and ultimately, actualization and validation is by having someone see us,” she said. “We desperately want someone to understand us. So we don’t feel so weird. So alone. We want to find where we belong.”

Ms. Tabatabai looked around the room again, her eyes connecting with each student in turn.

“Behavior, not words, are the letters we send to each other. We give gifts to each other to show our friendship or love. We cook soup for someone we love when they’re sick. We’re constantly sending out information with our actions to let other people know how we feel about them. We’ll do something nice for someone we want to impress. Do wild and crazy things to get the cool kids to notice us and be friends with us.”

That hit a little too close to home for several students who were suddenly shifting in their seats.

“We’ll make jokes and try to make people laugh. Maybe to make them feel happy. Or to remind them that we’re there. We’ll peacock around to attract the attention of someone we want to have a romantic relationship with. Or, maybe we’ll be more subtle and show them how we care for them through acts of kindness and generosity. Human beings constantly use their behaviors to telegraph their needs and desires to other human beings.”