(As promised, continued from Monday, for those of you holding your breath wondering how it will all turn out…)
There are two things I learned this past year that I hope will help me through the next 12 months. First off, fear and paranoia are hardwired into our personalities and with good reason. Way back in the days when we were first walking upright there was a noticeable imbalance of power between us and the main predators of the 
time. Until we were able to figure out which end of the pointy stick goes where, the ability to run away at the first suspicious sound was a tremendous advantage in staying alive long enough to contribute to the future human race.
Since then we have developed other attributes, qualities and conceits but fear, just as much as arrogance, remains a source of potential downfall in us all. This is the secret weapon of the terrorists and, unfortunately, a large number of political leaders. It is the reason why our neighbors to the south, the staunch defenders of liberty and self-proclaimed mid-wives of human rights, willingly permit their own government to restrict freedom, erect barriers that keep their own people in as effectively as they keep the ne-er-do-wells out.
It is politically expedient for the leaders of any country to nuture an ‘us versus them’ feeling. It is the conservative version of knee-jerk liberalism and it keeps us thinking with our lizard brain rather than the penicillin discovering brain. Next time I am told something needs to be done to protect me and mine from the evils of the world, I will take a long hard look at the proposal. Sometimes the things to be protected from are much less of a threat than the measures required to protect me.
The other thing I learned this year is that mice actually sing. I don’t know why this makes me feel better about the world around me but it does. Perhaps it is because of all the ways we’ve manipulated the poor creatures over the years: starving, overfeeding, chopping, infecting and breeding out or in whatever trait our scientists need to research.
These wee creatures have been through so much in the name of helping us supposedly superior beings live longer, in greater comfort and free of many of the minor or major complaints that plagued our predecessors. And after all these years of taking mice apart right down to their chromosomes it was only a few months ago the folk in the white coats heard them sing. The fact that any mouse still feels like singing is even more amazing.
The world still holds so many surprises for us if we just take the time to stop being afraid and listen.
