Seeking only affection and adventure (…and perhaps bananas), these cat-sized critters with soft hands, wet noses and insatiable curiosity walked with us for hours through the forests of Madagascar. When we paused for breaks, they climbed onto our heads or shoulders…presumably to see our perspective on their world. These lemurs won our hearts and minds with their unrestrained curiosity and friendly, accepting demeanors. For them, learning about people seemed to be a fun adventure. It struck us that this was how learning should be, and that lemurs could be great role models for us… and kids everywhere.
After our lemur encounter, we returned to San Francisco and in 2010 created a small writing and publishing business called Ringtail Learning (named for the ring-tailed lemur) as a “weekends and evenings” project at pacificdreamscapes.com to share curiosity-driven living and learning.