live amongst the animals

it distresses me that humans forget that they are animals.

the other day in my english class my english teacher was talking about happiness. he spoke condescendingly about the burden humans have of self reflection and a large brain- while animals, he said- are always happy. animals go about their days in harmony because they aren't as advanced as humans because they are unfamiliar with the questioning mind.  he said they are oblivious to our daunting existence and therefore they are happy.  animals are happy? all the time? i'd argue that.  i believe that animals just know. animals understand something unspoken and enigmatic that we as self involved humans will never understand.  animals know what they must do in order to maintain the earthly balance. humans are flawed animals. we become obsessed with ourselves. instead of the maintaining of our environment or our species, we spend all our time doing things for ourselves. creating things, destroying things, hoping that someone will remember us. worrying about our end. creating fantasies about  life that continues after death, yearning for comfort from something greater than this life. we are needy. we are so lonely. we must have  attention, we need someone to remember us. we are so full of ourselves.  get a grip.  we're all going to fucking kill each other in the end.  we are all little children. we are all frightened.