August 24, 2011 update: The photo is of a whale, not a dolphin. Message is the same!I once wrote a question, “Just because we can teach a dolphin to communicate, does that mean we should invest our time teaching them to communicate?”
I really don’t know the “right” answer to that question. What I do know is that dolphins bring an enormous amount of good emotion out in human beings.
I grew up watching Flipper and can recall fondly the silly theme song. The simple site of a dolphin in a photo reminds my cells of all those good feelings. If something so simple can create positive emotion, maybe dolphins are communicating with us without us ever “teaching” them to communicate as we know it. Maybe that is what Barbara Fredrickson meant when she postulated that: Love is the experience of positive emotions which are noticed in the momentary increase in the well-being of another, causing a sychronistic response that builds over time.
I don’t know the answers, I just know dolphins make me feel good. Peace, Andrea
