Forward for "Down on all 4's" from David Anderson

Since life first began on Earth, approximately 3.5 billion years ago, the survival of a species has been determined by natural selection and environmental conditions. No one knows how many species once lived on “our” planet, or how many there are today. Estimates are that well over 99% of the species that once existed have gone the way of extinction.

Greg L. Bass book, “Down On All Fours” ,presents thru the magic of his poetry and pictures the beauty of some of our most precious remaining species....

We are now in the sixth extinction and estimates are that we are losing another species every 18 minutes. What makes this extinction different from the previous five is that its cause may be the result of the massive influence of one species, Homo Sapiens, us. Greg’s book , “Down on All Fours” presents in poetry and prose, a personal view of the beauty of the relationship between man and species like Leopards, Lions, Cheetahs, Wolves and Bears. Greg presents how we are part of the natural environment rather than apart from our natural environment.

Our evolutionary ancestors who once walked “down on all fours,” over two million years ago stood up and walked on two limbs, leaving the other two for more efficient hunting and gathering of food. The next big step in man’s evolution was using tools. From there came the leap to agriculture and domestication of animals, probably 10,000 years ago. In modern time, the biggest leap came at the time of the industrial revolution. Yes, we have come a long way from being “down on all fours” and it would be difficult to find anyone that would not define our species progress as extraordinary. Greg’s book, “Down on All Fours”,takes us to places where primordial processes, like the great Wildebeest migration still take place just at it did millions of years ago. Greg presents to us the beauty in these places and gives us cause to stop and think about why we should endeavor to save them and keep them sacred.

Man, indeed, had replaced Nature as the driving force on our planet and there is no turning back. Unlike all of the other species with whom we share our home (Planet Earth), our survival will be dependent on our ability to think and learn how to live in cooperation with Nature in an environmentally sustainable way. This will require us to observe the natural world and the reasons some species have survived millions of years and why others have disappeared. Greg’s “Down on All Fours” awakens in us thru one man’s spiritual insight and experience the beauty of this important integral relationship. Greg expresses these awakenings through his magical new genre the PhotoPoem.

There are few places better to observe the natural world than in East and South Africa. There Greg L. Bass (the ghostbear) discovered the magic of Nature and has beautifully expressed this magic on the following pages. Journey along with Greg through his PhotoPoems this magic. As I write this forward to “Down on All Fours” I am in South Africa, once more preparing to head to Botswana for my 85th expedition into the wild bush of Africa. Each time I journey into the “African bush” I feel at, as Greg has expressed, truly at home in my primordial place.

On this particular trip I will visit the Bushman of the Kalahari, an indigenous culture that has been living in harmony with Nature since the first Homo Sapiens stood up erect from “Down on All Fours.”

David Anderson
David Anderson Safaris
Santa Barbara, California

Buy Greg's book from Trafford publishing.

Available in stores and on-line April 2011.