Since he took over for Dave Letterman in 2015, I have watched every episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. There are a few bits of the show I don’t care for, but in general I love his blend of news, sarcasm, nerdy-ness and social activism. I’m not sure which segment is my favorite though, Rescue Dog Rescue or The Colbert Questionert. The Questionert is what prompted today’s thoughts though, so if you want, take a moment to answer the questions for yourself before continuing to read this. Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you get back . . . 

Easy Answers

The questions Colbert and his team have devised have led to some interesting discussions in our house. At times lasting days on end. When you enjoy music ranging from classical to pop and most everything in between, it’s hard to choose just one song. Mine would be “The Sound of Silence” by the way. Some of the other questions are pretty easy, here’s a few of my answers, in no particular order:

• No
• Baking bread or cookies
• Flat
• Reuben
• Red
• Yes
• Three

I’ll let you figure out which ones are which. 

The Scariest

When I first started considering which is the scariest animal, I of course thought of spiders, snakes and moths. Yes, moths. The way they fly around willy-nilly, whacking into you, touching you unexpectedly, totally freaks me out. Blegh! It gives me the creeps just thinking about it. Especially when you go to natural history museums and see the moths that are the size of dinner plates. The thought of one of those flapping around my head could send me into a tizzy.

As I gave it more thought though, I’ve come up with what I feel is the best answer. What is the scariest animal? Humans. 

No other animal I know of has our level of consciousness and potential for empathy but still commits atrocities against other humans. Yes, other animals fight and kill others of their own kind, at times even their own offspring, but they do so out of instinct and a fight to survive. Humans have been killing each other for as long as I know for dumb things like a difference in beliefs and the color of their skin. That’s what I call truly scary.