African Travel Articles
Recapitulate
(Names of people and places have
been withheld to avoid further surrender)
On my recent safari a
simple statement: "I'm going to sit at the dam and recapitulate today's
events!" became a four-minute obsession between one person who knew exactly
what she was saying, and two other people who fell straight into life's little
abyss of inadequacy called 'Oops!'
The word that caused all the
strife was 'recapitulate' and those that dropped into that dark place called
Oops did so by immediately referencing that word to mean 'capitulate again,'
sadly dumping the two vociferous straw men into a newly formed mire of literary
scantiness.
Struggling to find a way out, but recognizing that I may be
wrong in my assumption, I happily left the other person to continue the
argument unassisted - and quickly jumped out of the discussion. I continued my
game drive past the elephants and mumbling something about how they've been on
this planet longer than we have.
Our hero later turned to a wonderful
electronic dictionary to put an end to any remaining obstinacy.
So
straight to the definitions, and I'll try and be as unassuming as I can, then
please allow me my minute of glory as I try to appease myself in
interpretation.
Capitulate -verb (used without object),
-lat·ed, -lat·ing.
1. to surrender unconditionally or on
stipulated terms.
2. to give up resistance: He finally capitulated and
agreed to do the job my way.
Recapitulate
1. To repeat in
concise form.
2. Biology: To appear to repeat (the evolutionary stages of
the species) during the embryonic development of the individual organism.
v.intr.
To make a summary - or 'recap' (how foolish of me not to recognize
the abbreviation..)
At some point in my scrabble dabble through the
online references I remember something about 'reviewing the terms of surrender,
creating headers outlining the terms of surrender,' which pretty much means
that what I am doing on the keyboard right now - is recapitulating!
So
you can recapitulate the day's events…but what follows is my
interpretation of what you actually end up doing in a place as magnificent as
the Kruger.
You cannot practically scale down our solar system
accurately on a piece of paper.
You cannot assume that science is
accurate because a majority of mathematic illuminates, philosophers and
ecologists subscribe to the same theorem.
You cannot interpret life by
using yourself and your views as the starting point. You cannot predict the
future - ask the weatherman, economist or even your shrink! (All of whom, by
the way, will charge a fortune to tell you what you already know.)
…and love cannot logically be explained. Nor can life, the way it started
and the way it will end.
But you can surrender yourself to the bigger
picture (even if you don't know what it is!). And you can, if you are that way
inclined, recapitulate those terms of surrender by allocating 'headers' or your
salient points regarding the surrender to remind you (or recap) your reasons
for surrendering to it in the first place!
I prefer bumper stickers to
philosophy. They are short, to the point and often extremely relevant. Car
bumper stickers are accessed by far more people than Plato or Socrates, or
Oprah Winfrey. Stuck in a traffic jam, you get the headlines by reading bumper
stickers and not the volumes! And you rarely have to recapitulate because
humour is already bulleted in a single sentence. It's a bit like turning 40 -
hectic, (ie. you have to negotiate your terms of surrender), but turning 41 is
simply a review of those initial terms of surrender.
I know all this
because it is what I have to do every minute of my day as a professional field
guide. Simply ask the rhino that charged me. He didn't have to read the same
behavioral books on rhinos that I had to read to qualify as a professional
field guide. In review, I should have read the books that rhinos read to
qualify them to become professional rhinos…
Life is not about
finding answers, it's about asking questions! That's my bumper sticker and now,
I think, I'll need to recapitulate my initial terms of surrender.
By
the way what's the difference between a leopard's claws and a comma?
Answer: A leopard's claws are at the end of its paws and
a comma is a pause at the end of a clause!
Written by Neil,
a professional safari guide in South Africa
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to view all Neil's itineraries
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