Whenever we headed down to the island, our days were always the same.......up early for a quick bite to eat, surf where ever - Woolamai, Anzacs, YCW, Smiths, early lunch at Dr Food (I will never forget those sausage rolls), more surf, a nap, another surf if we were lucky and then dinner followed by movies, tv shows, lots of guitar, a little beer or wine and a David Attenborough documentary or two............
On this particular Saturday night we were watching a documentary on chimpanzees. The footage was of a troop of chimps in captivity, some of which had been street performers before they came to live in the sanctuary. Some of the chimps in their performing days had been taught how to break open very hard nuts with a hammer. Quite a useful skill and a good way to get ahead in the chimp world. And a skill that every other chimp wanted to learn.
The trouble with chimps, according to David Attenborough, is that past the age of 4, they cannot learn new skills. That's it. They are done for the rest of their lives. Everything they learn before the age of 4 is all they have for the rest of the lives............and they live for up to 60 years!........I found this interesting and a little unnerving. Especially as the next scene in the documentary showed a number of chimps, having observed a brother chimp crack open nuts and eat them, trying to teach themselves this new skill..............................a fruitless task, as David commented in the background........as they were all older then 4.....
I just couldn't help but wonder that at 32, am I one of those chimps? On a fruitless journey to learn a new skill that I will never, ever master?
