I wake up too early this morning. The first thing I see is an orangutan making a hammock in his zoo cage. I identify with the orangutan.

The orangutan has always been my favorite animal. Those eyes. That mouth. Those teeth. That smile. Okay, so she needs a groomer, but, hey, so do I. How can you not love an orangutan? So smart. So . . .  human. So . . . technological!

Not only are they endearing personalities; they don’t make bombs or burn coal. They use their creative resources to make hammocks to rock away the day and turn their world upside-down . . . or right-side up. They invent. They make it up. They play.  They have no need of the smoke and mirrors of the zoo keepers’s world.

I wanna be an Orangutan!

• Gordon C. Stewart, Chaska, MN, March 7, 2017