July 13, 2025: Overcoming "Zoo Mentality"

My husband and I recently returned from a two-week trip to Alaska. Neither of us had ever been there before, so it had been on our travel list for a while. The landscape was truly breathtaking and we were lucky enough to see many native animals in their wild habitat.

         A quote from the Research Biologist that presented several seminars that we attended during the trip has stuck with me. “You must overcome your zoo-mentality”. He explained that we were not entering a zoo, but a natural area. Animals did not appear on cue so we could get our money’s worth. We needed to be as unobtrusive as we could, to exercise patience, and to understand that nature has its own timetable.

         While I understood the point he was making, it did not truly sink in until we were on our Tundra Tour of the Denali National Park.  It was a 5-hour tour of some of the most beautiful landscape.  Yes, we were fortunate enough to see a great deal of wildlife, including bears, moose, caribou, sheep, and eagles.  However, the sightings were not anything like seeing these animals in a zoo situation.

         They came when we did not expect it. We had to be vigilant and observant so that we could see them in the distance. We had to be quiet and still so that we would not interfere with the natural rhythms of the habitat.

         In the weeks that we have been home, I have been contemplating how we sometimes have a “zoo mentality” about other things.  Like writing.  And how the advice from our biologist could be applicable to our work as writers.

         Be unobtrusive.

Sometimes we get in the way of the story we are trying to tell. We think that we are the center, and the story emanates from there. Perhaps we need to step back, and allow the story to unfold without our pushing it.  We need to be unobtrusive. We need to be still and quiet, and see what comes to us.

         Be patient.

Writers know that writing takes time, but we still like to push it.  We set page or word count goals. We set deadlines. We schedule our writing time and expect that the words will pour out on cue. While not always possible, when it is, we need to embrace patience.  Let the writing come to us. Be ready, and when it does appear, embrace it!

         Respect the natural timetable.

Different types of writing and publishing have different timelines. While intellectually we know that, as writers we sometimes want to fit projects into our own preferred timelines. Traditional publication is very slow, while social media publication is instantaneous, for example. Respecting and accepting the natural timeline of each type of writing we do, can eliminate a great deal of stress.

         As Henry David Thoreau said, “All good things are wild and free.”