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Description
A peacock and a man stood side by side at a zoo, discussing mating rituals.

The peacock proudly displayed his feathers, exclaiming, " I thrust my feathers into the air and dance elaborately for a female."

The man whistled in appreciation. "Very impressive! But it seems very complicated."

"How does your kind impress the other sex?"

The man thought hard, and finally spoke. "Well, first we build a fire. We create a wheel from clay. We make clothes. We paint cave walls, in our blooming sentience and self-awareness. We create civilizations. We build temples, and pyramids, and cities, and empires, and burn them to the ground. We conquer each other and kill ourselves. We write poetry and fight wars-"

"At the same time?"

The man considered briely before nodding. "Sometimes. We stetch the boundaries of imagination and science. We count the stars and measure the sun. We have epiphanies and prove ourselves wrong. We lie. We cheat. We gamble. We kill. We nurture. We create. We destroy. We dive down in the ocean and disappear in the stars. We teach and burn and paint. We enslave continents and free them again. We rebel and rebuild and rebel again. We study the tiniest particles and theorize about the largest galaxies. We go insane and pray to gods and marvel at the world, and we sit alone and isolated and despise it. We reach the edge of oblivion and fall to the bottom again."

"Huh."

The two stared forward, watching children pet an elephant. After a moment, the peacock shrugged, commenting,

"I just dance."

Description
A peacock and a man stood side by side at a zoo, discussing mating rituals.

The peacock proudly displayed his feathers, exclaiming, " I thrust my feathers into the air and dance elaborately for a female."

The man whistled in appreciation. "Very impressive! But it seems very complicated."

"How does your kind impress the other sex?"

The man thought hard, and finally spoke. "Well, first we build a fire. We create a wheel from clay. We make clothes. We paint cave walls, in our blooming sentience and self-awareness. We create civilizations. We build temples, and pyramids, and cities, and empires, and burn them to the ground. We conquer each other and kill ourselves. We write poetry and fight wars-"

"At the same time?"

The man considered briely before nodding. "Sometimes. We stetch the boundaries of imagination and science. We count the stars and measure the sun. We have epiphanies and prove ourselves wrong. We lie. We cheat. We gamble. We kill. We nurture. We create. We destroy. We dive down in the ocean and disappear in the stars. We teach and burn and paint. We enslave continents and free them again. We rebel and rebuild and rebel again. We study the tiniest particles and theorize about the largest galaxies. We go insane and pray to gods and marvel at the world, and we sit alone and isolated and despise it. We reach the edge of oblivion and fall to the bottom again."

"Huh."

The two stared forward, watching children pet an elephant. After a moment, the peacock shrugged, commenting,

"I just dance."