A Charm of Humans?

I set out to write a piece on optimism and hope for the New Year. In the piece I would propose that by universal effort we make 13 a lucky number. The critical word here is 'universal', defined as pertaining to all or the whole. By that definition, it would take us all to make 2013 a lucky year.

Often we use the words 'we' or 'us' in a partisan sense, meaning those allied to us or congruous with our thoughts or objectives. But for the effort on the scale I propose to succeed, it must be truly universal.

There are relatively few words that describe the entirety of the human race. Our species seldom acts in a universal, all inclusive capacity toward a unified objective. Size and distance are factors, of course. But in a shrinking world, must that always be so? Perhaps not.

Humans are after all social animals. We like to gather. We have names for our social selves. When several of us are gathered together we are a group, or perhaps a crowd. Or we could be a throng or a bunch. On certain days we might be a congregation, or sometimes a rabble, on lesser days a posse. We even borrow terms from other species to refer to ourselves in the plural; a swarm, a herd, a pack. There are more names for humans in groups than when alone.

But we are not the only social animals. Other animals congregate too, within their species. We've heard that birds of a feather flock together. And so do sheep...flock, that is. But not goats, they are a tribe or a trip or a herd, as are cattle and buffalo, at least until they run away and become a stampede. Porpoises are also a herd, or they can be a school, or a pod. Whales can be a pod, and they can also be a school and a herd, and a gam and a float and a run and a troop and shoal and a mob. Kangaroos are a mob but have been known to be a court and a troop. And yes, a group of baboons is also called a troop. Some call a large group of baboons a congress; I'll leave that to you to decide. But chimpanzees are also a troupe, and they can be a barrel, a cartload, a community, or a tribe. Gorillas can be a troop too, or a band. Notice that with monkeys we have come full circle to humans, who can be troops, tribes, cartloads, communities and yes, a congress.

It seems all creatures band together by species, at least on occasion, and become an entity. Crows become a murder, a group of crocodiles a bask or a float, a group of doves a dule, eagles a convocation, falcons a cast, finches a charm, larks an exaltation, ferrets a business, goldfish a troubling, greyhounds a leash, lions a pride, leopards a leap, owls a parliament, peacocks an ostentation, rattlesnakes a rhumba, squirrels a dray, turtledoves a pitying…well, you get my drift.

I wondered if there is any creature so independent that it lacks a term for it as a group?  I remembered that when it is difficult to move things as a unit, we say it is like herding cats. Aha! Maybe that most independent of creatures is the exception. But no. It seems there is actually more than one name for a group of cats. They are called a clowder or a clutter or a glaring. Even cats in the wild when gathered together have a name, a dowt or a destruction. Apparently all creatures, the birds of the air, the denizens of the deep, the beasts of the field are social enough to have a name as a group.  Contrary to what we might like to think, humans are not the only social animal or even the most social of animals.

And so I suggest we consider some new names for humans when gathered together. We have named other groups of animals for the characteristics we have assigned them. Perhaps if we called a large gathering of humans by a truly fine name we might eventually grow into it. How wonderful for a mob of humans to be known as a Charm, like the finch, or an Exaltation, like the lark. What if we called gathered humans a Loving or a Fairness? Or maybe a Good? I think its worth a try.