One Lame Lemur

My three children and I attended a wonderful showing of an IMAX film set in Madagascar and portraying the wonderful, but endangered, world of lemurs. As members of our local planetarium, our family regularly attends these movies that educate and entertain. My wife had a commitment at the symphony at the same time so this evening I got to spend some one on three time with my children who are still at home.

Today marks a milestone moment for my eldest son. At sixteen he displayed his first truly instinctual teenage act. During the show we heard the calls of several Indri lemurs. Their cries resemble some type of a haunting cross between an owls hoot and the meow of house cat. These animals call to one another and create a cacophonous and melodious chorus as families blend their voices in a deep forest discussion on topics that only lemurs can understand.

We learned much about the challenges that humans and animals face on the island of Madagascar because of the limited resources for both. For millions of years the lemurs had no predators. But when the race of men discovered the island we claimed it as our own, to use as we need and please. The result is that many species of lemurs have gone extinct and several others remain endangered. The film asserted that 90% of the forest area of Madagascar has been burned by mankind and that there used to be species of lemurs the size of gorillas, but they were hunted to extinction several hundred years ago.

We learned that one of the unique features of lemurs is that they have organized their social structure under a matriarchal order. We were told that they are the only primates who follow this practice. The producers claim that even the smallest female sits superior to the largest male in an alleged role reversal from other primates, namely humans. I was briefly tempted to send in a summary of our almost 23 years of marriage to challenge this claim of unique matriarchal order, but I realized that such a course would serve me no positive purpose.

Adam and Jonah on train
passing  Abravanel Hall. 

The chance to watch these lemurs in 3D on a large-format IMAX film provided the sensation of being there in the forest with them, without the jet lag. As we left the planetarium we crossed the street to the platform and waited for our train to arrive; we only had a few minutes. At this point my ten-year-old son and I started making lemur calls to each other. At that moment I became a proud father to a teenage boy.

My son has remained obedient, respectful and helpful throughout his three-plus years of adolescence. While the peace has been wonderful, I occasionally wondered if he was using these years to develop his own sense of an independent self. Today those worries were washed away. His rejection was neither rude nor mean spirited; but it was clear. My son felt embarrassed by his dad.