A new life

You can just call me Mat. You’d think I would be arrogant and self-centred given the amount of times people tell me I’m handsome and smart. But you know, I don’t see life that way. For me, what’s most interesting is having friends and partaking in social events with the ones around me. I have a few good friends, I didn’t really choose them, we just happened to be at the same place at the same time and in the end, it works rather well for us. We are not perfect though, I share my living space with Linus who always wants everything first and with Karen who likes to be on her own but always relies on me to be her friend.

I’m not too sure how I feel when I meet new people. It’s probably a mix of curiosity and indifference, and to some extend a calculation of what’s in it for me. Just like anyone else, there are people I like more than others. People are a mystery, aren’t they? They’re capable of the worst and of the best, so how can we trust anyone. With people, you can never know. They are good at putting their true intentions in disguise. I like to think that me and my friends, we’re more straightforward. It might just be Nature that makes living things unpredictable, but at least we don’t hide it. I also think that it’s terrible to realise that for many years, your life is dictated by others who consign you to a life of suffering for their own benefit. In their eyes though, they’re offering you a life of happiness, oblivious to their own benefits. They think it’s all for you - their love, their focus, their attention, their affection. But what they don’t realise is that it’s all for them, because they need love, focus, attention and affection. When I lived with them, I didn’t feel any of these things, how could I - all I needed and wanted was to be where I belonged - but they thought I did because they felt it all themselves. You have here the biggest misunderstanding we’re the victims of. Attributing others’ feelings based on the oblivion of your own projected ones.

I was born with the sole purpose of making people like them happy, and it worked, for a while. But how long can people feed off their happiness from a source that does not emit any? I was one of the lucky ones, to be given a second life, as we were all fading together in that house, the realisation of my condition couldn’t provide them with the satisfaction of keeping me any longer. A lot of others in my situation are however stuck in this unbalanced equation and will never have a way out, trapped forever in the circle of frustrating entertainment. I was sent to a better place, where I could meet others like me, make friends, get healthy, enjoy more freedom. A place where people would only be content with me thriving. And that, I did, but not in a physical way. I thrived with purpose, purpose that was allocated to me and through me rather than purpose I initiated myself. I’ve met many people, and if you could see the things they accomplished after meeting me! Johanna travelled to South America and went to see others like me, but whose sole purpose at birth, unlike me, was to follow Mother Nature’s intricate, ingenious and mysterious plans. Luke decided to quit his office job and started his own charity. Elizabeth finally decided what she wanted to study and graduated with honours. Mark became a world famous activist. Lucy began painting again after years of putting her creative side aside and sold many of her artworks to raise funds. Paul changed his diet and lifestyle entirely. Kate decided to dedicate her life protecting forests around the globe. You see, all these things didn’t happen because of my good looks or my intelligence. They didn’t happen either because of any of my own skills, I’m probably not a very good painter or public speaker, not that I have ever tried, but it’s best if I don’t. I have other skills, I’m great at solving problems, using tools and cracking nuts, but I’m not sure they played an essential and tangible role in the life-changing decisions people have taken. I might indeed be the smartest in my group (and admittedly the best-looking one) but I’m also capable of great modesty and all these initiatives, projects and changes have come from these humans, from some awareness and kindness they have in themselves, that only needed a little spark to come to life fully, in the most grandiose way possible. Sometimes, dormant passion and great achievements only need a little push to blossom with a crushing and unstoppable force. It’s the same awareness and kindness that brought me and my fellow capuchins here, in a place where I might never be in the wild like my conspecifics, but where the best is done for me, every single day. A place for me to live and make friends. A place to survive. And if seeing us survive inspires people to change the course of their life for the greater good, at the end of the day, our suffering would not have been in vain. Isn’t that one of life’s most precious lessons, to turn suffering into positive purpose, whether that suffering is experienced or witnessed? At the end of the day, I might not have a lot of control over my destiny and the circumstances that have brought me here, but I know that somewhere, and a bit everywhere in the world, you can find people thinking «Mat and his friends are resilient survivors, and I’ll now do everything I can to ensure that other monkeys like him live the life they deserve, far from the destructive trade they’re the victims of, and thriving in their natural habitat that needs to be protected».