The Coveted Prize “An Ape in My Car”

A few years ago, my wife and I were in Europe with our son and his family who were living in Germany. Traditionally when we visited them, we tried to take the family on a side trip and spend a week visiting another part of Europe. On this particular trip we decided to visit Spain, which included a visit to the Rock of Gibraltar.

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We had been told that there were apes living on the ‘The Rock’. In reality they were not apes but Barbary macaque (monkey), often referred to as the Barbary ape1. We thought it would be fun to pay them a visit so we hired a guide who warned us that they were still wild animals and would bite if frightened. He reminded us that the apes usually tolerated tourists, but they were not caged so we had to be careful. 

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He drove us to the location where the apes lived, and he parked the car so we could get out and walk around. We were pleasantly surprised at how friendly and fearless they were of humans. They came up to us, begged for food, jumped on our shoulders, let us take their picture, and one of them (the stupid one) even pooped on my head. Obviously, this did not endear him to me but otherwise it made my family’s day. 

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My wife was a good sport through all of this, but she didn’t particularly want her picture taken holding an ape and wanted to sit in the car in peace, be by herself, and wait until we were finished. Unfortunately, her decision led to the greatest scare we had all day,  although it turned out to be the most memorable part of the trip. 

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I walked with her to the car, opened the door so she could get in but before I could close the door an unexpected visitor jumped in with her. It was a friendly ape that I believe wanted to give her a hug but at the last minute decided to steal a bag of potato chips sitting on the dashboard. Before either of us could react, this thief jumped out the door and onto the roof of the car with her contraband and eventually she climbed a tree that was near to the car. 

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After everything settled down, my wife told us that she decided not to risk being bitten, scratched, pinched, or kissed by this ape just to save a bag of potato chips. We thought she made the right decision and declared her our hero.

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As I thought about what happened that day, I was curious about the ape’s daring approach to stealing our potato chips and I wondered if an analogy could be made to our lives. I realized that this ape is a creature that acts on instinct and risk taking is part of his coping skills. 

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Like the ape part of our surviving and thriving depends on the development of our risk-taking skills. Obviously, our risk taking involves effort to get out of our comfort zone and try new approaches that allow us to face life’s challenges in a positive way. Taking risks to try to improve ourselves and take control of our life is important in gaining personal strength and resilience. Lacking the courage to take a chance when we see opportunities come our way can lead to stagnation. Obviously, our friend the ape took a chance and was rewarded with a bag of potato chips. What rewards can we obtain when we take a risk and step out of the box? We will never know until we try! 



Happy Failing Forward,


Calvert Cazier PhD, MPH

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1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_macaques_in_Gibraltar

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