{"id":14914,"date":"2021-12-01T20:50:16","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T04:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/godammit.com\/?p=14914"},"modified":"2021-12-02T01:29:33","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T09:29:33","slug":"heartbreak-and-the-dik-dik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/godammit.com\/heartbreak-and-the-dik-dik\/","title":{"rendered":"Heartbreak and the Dik-Dik"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I always click on the saddest, most horrible articles in the New York Times online. Yesterday, I read about a study finding that parents who lose a child have an increased risk of heart attacks. The idea being that heartbreak actually breaks your heart. I read most of the comments, too. The most pertinent one was, “No kidding.”<\/p>\n

The saddest one, the one I most identified with was this, from a mother:<\/p>\n

I have never been the same. My broken heart was only part of the casualty. A shadow appearing as myself has been going about the Sisyphean task called life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, that’s a perfect summation. I am here but not here. That’s just the way it is.<\/p>\n

I dutifully read the bleak, sappy, distressing and sometimes clueless comments and was finally rewarded by a guy who pointed out that the African dik-dik dies of heartbreak after a partner passes away. I pictured a noble tribe of nomadic herders, swathed in beads and kente cloth and dropping dead in their paths.<\/p>\n

But the dik-dik is a tiny species of antelope, reaching only around 12 to 16 inches high!\u00a0 Unlike other antelope, who live in herds, the dik-dik live in pairs. They are monogamous partners for life, and so protective of their privacy that they chase away their own offspring before they reach 8 months old.<\/p>\n

The dik-dik are not only cute, with wiggly noses and long eyelashes, but obviously incurable romantics! Without the defenses of a herd, they are easy prey for larger animals, but they are true to their nature, trusting and depending on each other for everything.<\/p>\n

And here is the best part: Instead of marking their territory with urine, like most animals, the dik-dik mark their territories with tears.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

dik-dik bury their heads into the grass and release a special tear from a black spot below their eyes. This sticky preorbital glandular fluid cannot be smelled by human nostrils but conveys everything necessary to other dik-dik.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love them so much. A world with dik-dik in it can’t be dismissed as all bad. It’s mostly bad, but like the dictum, focus on the dopeness, not the wackness<\/em><\/a>, I’m going to focus on the dik-dik, and so should you.<\/p>\n

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