Christmas 2011 Blog: Merry Christmas from the Talking Porcupine

Merry Christmas to all!  I hope everyone is getting to spend the day with friends and family with love and peace all around.

And for a little joy--watch this Christmas message from Teddy Bear, the "talking" porcupine from Zooniversity:





Teddy is, as far as I know, the first porcupine whose videos have gone viral on the Internet.  He is most famous for his unwillingness to share his corn in a video released last month that has been viewed by over a million Internet users and aired on numerous national TV shows, such as The Today Show and Good Morning America.

The clip is popular because people watching it insist that Teddy protests the removal of his corn with such human phrases as "It's my corn," "Mine," "Stop," or "Get back."  The funny thing is that people hearing the words speak all sorts of different languages!  The majority speak English, but Zooniversity has also gotten claims of hearing such phrases in German, Dutch, and Russian.

It's a great example of how we hear what we are expecting and see what we are looking for.

Here is the original Teddy video so you can judge for yourself:





I join Teddy in wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!


PS--In the first video, what looks like a gingerbread man is actually a low-sugar dog biscuit decorated for a holiday treat.  So no animal health was endangered so that we could enjoy this cute video.  Also, Teddy apparently liked the Santa hat, because he kept it on for about an hour even after the video was shot.  Teddy has been hand raised from a baby and is one of the animal ambassadors for Zooniversity that goes to visit schools and conduct educational programs.  He seems to be one social porcupine!

World Religions: Animal Spirit Guide Collages

We had a treat this week in our World Religions class.  Our guest teacher was the Reverend Donna Belt, who is not only an ordained Interfaith minister, but is an art educator/art spiritual therapist through her work at Spirit Work Studio.  Miss Donna led a class based on discovering animal spirit guides through art.

First, Miss Donna discussed the role of animal spirit guides as teachers, mentor, supporters, guardians, etc. in many of the Earth-based religions.  She then led a guided meditation that was geared to having the students meet their animal spirit guides and hear what message that animal was bringing.  Then the students created a collage based on the animal picture that spoke to them (whether or not that was the same animal they discovered through the meditation).  Finally, everyone shared their collages and we discussed among ourselves the lessons we thought the collages contained.

Here are the artworks that were created and the names and messages that the artists assigned them (well, my version of them, based on my memories of the class, since I wasn't taking notes at the time):

"This is Blacky.  He embodies love.  He is standing in front of mountains, that stand for obstacles that we must face.  The journey over the mountain may be tough, but we can make it if we keep our love and our faith and our perseverance."

"The fawn's name is Spring.  Her message is that I am graceful and beautiful."

"I have three animals--three walruses.  They are based on an old Beatles' song that my mom likes.  The walruses' names are Koo, Kooka, and Choo.  The wave is cut out of a photograph of a butterfly.  The walruses just ride the waves and enjoy life."

"The fish's name is Crystal.  Her message is that we just glide through a world of beauty and color and wonder and life, and enjoy it as we go."

"The leopard's name is Jerod.  His message is that it is good to sit back and observe and to focus on one thing, even one small thing.  Because we can always spring into action, but our action is more purposeful  if we have studied and figured it out first."

We always love our classes with Miss Donna--she makes them very special!