Growing Up Human

About the Book

Many years ago, when one of my daughters was still a little girl, I took her to the zoo. We saw a gorilla enjoying the warming rays of the sun on a chilly autumn day. For one brief moment, we three were doing the same thing, relaxing together in the welcomed rays of the sun. Could I tell her that at one time in the distant past, our direct ancestors were no more advanced than the gorilla? Would she understand if informed that the gorilla was her relative and that she was even more closely related to a chimpanzee? If it were possible to roll back the hands of time under some ideal set of circumstances, this would be my story, both now, then. This is how I’d tell her “it happened.” Harry D. Ape is biographical. It is autobiographical. It is about no one in particular, and it is about everyone, including our “relatives.” It is fact, and it is myth. It explores who “we” are. Fact and myth describe who we are. It is hoped that after reading it, the reader will never look at a human, a chimp, or a great ape in the same way again.

About the Author

The author’s earliest memories are of the tropics and the jungles of the Philippines. Growing up in Mindanao, the more southerly and least developed of that island chain, he simply had to go to the forest outside of town and catch a monkey for a pet. He never forgot his childhood experiences, and desiring to share what he knew, he chose to explore the topic in a more formal way. Using the knowledge gleaned by experts in many fields, he set out to explore the questions: where did I come from, and who am I? Growing Up Human is the result of his quest. He is the author of three other books: How Would You Like Your Balut?, Telling on Texas, and The Last Christian. His hallmark has always been exploring his topics in unique and unusual ways. Growing Up Human is both biographical as well as autobiographical. It is part myth, and it is also in part the history of us all. He is now retired and lives in Houston, Texas, with his wife and two children.