This one got me at several levels. I had Duwamish tribe friends in high school and quite a few years after. I often sit in my recliner with our 7 pound Chihuahua/Rat Terrier in my lap, wondering if she dreams of chasing down deer or elk. I am definitely an omnivore. But feel discomfort when I see even a Great White Shark killed. I do believe plant life to be sentient, at some level, but revel in the memory of running to my Grandmother's garden on arrival at her home and pulling a couple of carrots from the soil, washing and eating them. Still the best carrots I've ever had. Thank you for always pulling me out the everyday and make me remember and contemplate.
You are too good of a writer to need white man's guilt to be appreciated.
As for the guilt toward the animals we kill (a lot of guilt discussion this time around...) I have thought a lot about it, and have not come up for myself with anything coherent, no unified theory of everything moral. My species evolved as an omnivore. If I respect animals, I must also respect myself as an animal, and that includes eating meat. And yet I feel enormous kinship toward other animals, especially those whose intelligence resembles mine. I mostly find them beautiful, majestic, extraordinary. And since my species tends to bash them mercilessly, I sometimes need to avert my eyes in shame. A few days ago we had the bombardment of the 4th of July fireworks. Every year I hear the wild animals scream in terror in the ravine nearby, after each bout of fireworks. I feel less shame about eating meat than about those screams triggered by my frivolous party. And that's nothing compared to the animals we put in cages in zoos, just so we can bring our kids to make faces at them and feed them peanuts.
Some years ago I saw, on a documentary, a wild cat (maybe a puma) kill a monkey and then realize the kill left an orphan baby. The puma walked over to the baby and put it to nurse at its own nipple. I never forgot this. I envy that wild cat its way of seeing the world. It has no need for a unified theory of all things good and bad, the way I have.
As for the dog that was licking you after your seizure, I'll bet it was doing so simply because, like you, it was a mammal. We're not so different, and deep in our bones (or our DNA) we know it well. Some years ago a chipmunk got inside my ground floor apartment. My cat chased it into a tight corner, and I quickly got the cat away, and closed the door. I had no idea what to do, so before I knew what I was doing, I started talking quietly, telling the chipmunk it was safe to come out. I immediately chuckled at my stupidity: what did I think a chipmunk would understand? Why would a chipmunk interpret the sound of my voice as reassuring or calming? The shock was that after a minute the little guy came out. It looked terrified, but it ventured out. The truth is animals usually know what I'm about, they know when I'm friendly and also when I'm in a bad mood. It's only with people that I can keep a poker face. Maybe I'm more wild animal than homo sapiens.
The wild boar you saw in the trap was a mother. There's nothing more powerful, more beautiful, more mysterious and more humbling than the immense bond between mother and baby. I think you wrote a poem about it, when your wife first became a mother. We all recognize it, from wild boar to puma to chipmunk to human.
White guilt used to be mostly silly. It’s sorta weaponized now to enhance social standing by whites and non-whites alike.
And thank you for all the other observations. I’m remembering the time I was on a wharf when a little bird hovered in and landed on my finger. I felt like Cinderella.
This conversation comes up from time to time, mostly when friends contemplate the contradictions in their love of eating meat and their deep compassion for the suffering of animals. As an omnivore myself, I embrace these seeming contradictions. I eat meat, the most humane I can afford, and I eat it will gusto. I often send up a thought of gratitude and apology for the animal that died.
I've read the science and I've had first-hand experiences that convince me that plants are sentient. Ironically, vegans I know get irate if you try to talk about the sentience of plants. They just feel like they're being baited I guess.
Anyway, my operating philosophy is that it is our inescapable conundrum that to survive we must take the lives of other beings. And as mammals, we are hard-wired to care about the suffering of others, especially babies! I think it is kind of sick to block our minds and hearts to this reality.
It makes me feel good to read that I'm not alone in this. I have much respect for people who can handle complexity. Jo
I'm gonna go one step further along this line of thought: I feel like when it comes my time to die, I can partially repay the debt by doing a green burial so there is no barrier to me becoming nourishment for the creatures and plants of the soil. Am I sounding like a whacko?
I now wonder if I wore turquoise earrings to your reading at the Columbus College of Art and Design. White people's guilt, I guess, and for good reason. This is a beautiful piece.
Beautiful! I love the honesty and the sorrow in equal measure., and the contrast of an awkward unlovely animal evoking such tenderness. You say your long and short term memory are impaired since 2015 but your compassionate imagination has not been damaged and lives deep in your bones. Maybe the lost strength of many things has not been lost, only altered. Poetry after all is an act requiring great mental strength. ... I read of the Jains, a very small religious group that originated in India, who will not even eat root vegetables as they fear disturbing the microorganisms when they pull the potato or onion from the earth. I wonder how they can exist on such a slim green leafy diet, no animal protein and not even starchy vegetables. Their faith must be very strong. And yours as well. Please keep writing.
Jain monks and nuns wear mesh scarves over their mouths so they don't accidentally inhale insects, and they sweep a large leaf in front of them as they walk so they won't accidentally tread on an insect or other small creature. I've been fascinated by them since I wrote a report about them for religion class in high school.
This one got me at several levels. I had Duwamish tribe friends in high school and quite a few years after. I often sit in my recliner with our 7 pound Chihuahua/Rat Terrier in my lap, wondering if she dreams of chasing down deer or elk. I am definitely an omnivore. But feel discomfort when I see even a Great White Shark killed. I do believe plant life to be sentient, at some level, but revel in the memory of running to my Grandmother's garden on arrival at her home and pulling a couple of carrots from the soil, washing and eating them. Still the best carrots I've ever had. Thank you for always pulling me out the everyday and make me remember and contemplate.
Yes, we need to be conscious, I think, about the sacrifices we benefit from—be they flora or fauna or human.
I liked the poem, and I loved your introduction!
Thank you!
This flows like water. Wow.
Thank you!
You are too good of a writer to need white man's guilt to be appreciated.
As for the guilt toward the animals we kill (a lot of guilt discussion this time around...) I have thought a lot about it, and have not come up for myself with anything coherent, no unified theory of everything moral. My species evolved as an omnivore. If I respect animals, I must also respect myself as an animal, and that includes eating meat. And yet I feel enormous kinship toward other animals, especially those whose intelligence resembles mine. I mostly find them beautiful, majestic, extraordinary. And since my species tends to bash them mercilessly, I sometimes need to avert my eyes in shame. A few days ago we had the bombardment of the 4th of July fireworks. Every year I hear the wild animals scream in terror in the ravine nearby, after each bout of fireworks. I feel less shame about eating meat than about those screams triggered by my frivolous party. And that's nothing compared to the animals we put in cages in zoos, just so we can bring our kids to make faces at them and feed them peanuts.
Some years ago I saw, on a documentary, a wild cat (maybe a puma) kill a monkey and then realize the kill left an orphan baby. The puma walked over to the baby and put it to nurse at its own nipple. I never forgot this. I envy that wild cat its way of seeing the world. It has no need for a unified theory of all things good and bad, the way I have.
As for the dog that was licking you after your seizure, I'll bet it was doing so simply because, like you, it was a mammal. We're not so different, and deep in our bones (or our DNA) we know it well. Some years ago a chipmunk got inside my ground floor apartment. My cat chased it into a tight corner, and I quickly got the cat away, and closed the door. I had no idea what to do, so before I knew what I was doing, I started talking quietly, telling the chipmunk it was safe to come out. I immediately chuckled at my stupidity: what did I think a chipmunk would understand? Why would a chipmunk interpret the sound of my voice as reassuring or calming? The shock was that after a minute the little guy came out. It looked terrified, but it ventured out. The truth is animals usually know what I'm about, they know when I'm friendly and also when I'm in a bad mood. It's only with people that I can keep a poker face. Maybe I'm more wild animal than homo sapiens.
The wild boar you saw in the trap was a mother. There's nothing more powerful, more beautiful, more mysterious and more humbling than the immense bond between mother and baby. I think you wrote a poem about it, when your wife first became a mother. We all recognize it, from wild boar to puma to chipmunk to human.
White guilt used to be mostly silly. It’s sorta weaponized now to enhance social standing by whites and non-whites alike.
And thank you for all the other observations. I’m remembering the time I was on a wharf when a little bird hovered in and landed on my finger. I felt like Cinderella.
Yes, I agree. I prefer action to guilt-sanctioned wearing my heart out on a sleeve, like a badge of honor. Oops, is this non-PC? Sorry.
And, oh how lovely, Cinderella.
I agree with this.
This conversation comes up from time to time, mostly when friends contemplate the contradictions in their love of eating meat and their deep compassion for the suffering of animals. As an omnivore myself, I embrace these seeming contradictions. I eat meat, the most humane I can afford, and I eat it will gusto. I often send up a thought of gratitude and apology for the animal that died.
I've read the science and I've had first-hand experiences that convince me that plants are sentient. Ironically, vegans I know get irate if you try to talk about the sentience of plants. They just feel like they're being baited I guess.
Anyway, my operating philosophy is that it is our inescapable conundrum that to survive we must take the lives of other beings. And as mammals, we are hard-wired to care about the suffering of others, especially babies! I think it is kind of sick to block our minds and hearts to this reality.
It makes me feel good to read that I'm not alone in this. I have much respect for people who can handle complexity. Jo
Thank you so much for this response!
I'm gonna go one step further along this line of thought: I feel like when it comes my time to die, I can partially repay the debt by doing a green burial so there is no barrier to me becoming nourishment for the creatures and plants of the soil. Am I sounding like a whacko?
I suspect that DNA is recycled
Alternate title: “Silence Of The Hogs.”
I wasn’t aware of your brain surgery. It didn’t curb your skill with words; for that, we are all blessed. 🙏
Except there was no silence. Squealing of the Hogs!
This made me think, hard.
I’m not too sure how I feel about that. ;)
Ha!
I now wonder if I wore turquoise earrings to your reading at the Columbus College of Art and Design. White people's guilt, I guess, and for good reason. This is a beautiful piece.
I’d say the Indian jewelry percentage among white fans in my audiences is appx 15%!
Beautiful! I love the honesty and the sorrow in equal measure., and the contrast of an awkward unlovely animal evoking such tenderness. You say your long and short term memory are impaired since 2015 but your compassionate imagination has not been damaged and lives deep in your bones. Maybe the lost strength of many things has not been lost, only altered. Poetry after all is an act requiring great mental strength. ... I read of the Jains, a very small religious group that originated in India, who will not even eat root vegetables as they fear disturbing the microorganisms when they pull the potato or onion from the earth. I wonder how they can exist on such a slim green leafy diet, no animal protein and not even starchy vegetables. Their faith must be very strong. And yours as well. Please keep writing.
Jain monks and nuns wear mesh scarves over their mouths so they don't accidentally inhale insects, and they sweep a large leaf in front of them as they walk so they won't accidentally tread on an insect or other small creature. I've been fascinated by them since I wrote a report about them for religion class in high school.
They are amazingly dedicated to their nonviolence. I don't think there can be a large number of them but I read there is a group in Seattle.
I don’t have that kind of spiritual devotion in any form.
It is the strength of their gentleness that made me think of them in relation to poetry.
Thank you. I didn’t know about the Jains. I’m gonna look them up.