Perhaps, humanity own nothing upon this Earth, but for the life in its veins and its constant struggle against Nature. Yes. Yes, indeed. Though animals, too, we climb higher and higher, until we believe we can see as far as Nature herself.
Yet all we see from that that perch atop the world, is the Nature we can never escape. Should we not run to it with arms outstretched, that Nature in whose shadow we tremble? Will it not nurture us as it nurtures every other living creature? How different are we, that it would deprive us of food and water, a place to keep warm? Why have we dreamt of rising above that which created us?
For some time, I considered how coldly we had betrayed our origins. Our wealth had been the Earth, and we had traded it for paper, for steel, and for glass. We had settled for less, what we thought was more. And our struggles had changed. Where, once, we (like the animals) had struggled for life, and our lives from that struggle, drew increase, now our days returned less for a pining that idolized baubles and fancy trimmings.
When we concede to live as part of a civilized society, we sign our names to an unwritten agreement. Our promise then is to resist what our natures beg us to do. We agree that chaos has no place among the aspects of civilization, thus commencing our lifelong struggle within.
We become slaves to second-thoughts. We feel shamed by our hearts, for all the senseless things they profess; and more, we put stock in our brains. But where does all of this lead? When we say nothing that we do not first subject to the sieve of forethought? Consciousness becomes a prison for the feelings, and thought becomes the guard at the door.
For my own part, the more time in spent in the company of “society people”, the worse off I became. I felt I was losing touch with myself. And I grew desperate to find a way out.
It came to me one day, as I was thinking back to the time in my youth when I felt least inhibited. I had been a free spirit. The world seemed to invite me wherever I went, and I, in turn, welcomed the unknown.
I remembered then, the wonderful times I had shared with animals. I had always felt more myself around them. When I was sad, they sat with me. When I was happy, they matched my energy, and played along. What is more comforting: an animal friend who never strays, or a person with condolences, and a bouquet of wilting flowers?
I can’t recall a time I thought twice before speaking to an animal. My trust was complete, and it needed no language, no false promises, or words of encouragement. Animals showed up; people penned notes, or made calls, or wrote checks.
Among animals, it matter not how I looked, what I was wearing, how much money I had, but they accepted my affection just the same.
Some people will not so much as look at you for all the kindness in the world. To those for whom a worthwhile companion means someone to help you get ahead, a person offering no more than his or her heart, may be judged unworthy.
At last, I asked myself: Is there anything I could do for which an animal would judge me unkindly? And here, finally, I discovered yes, there was something. It was the violation of Nature’s one and only moral code.
The only thing we have to claim in this life, is life itself. Nothing is more sacred. Nothing is more certain. We are given this, and this alone.
And to live that life, is right. But to take more, is wrong.
I began to piece it all together. I thought of society’s fiats, the unwritten agreement to subjugate our natures and to stifle our feelings. I thought of the deprivation of our hearts, and the exhaltation of our minds. I thought of the peace I’d felt when I was myself, among animals. I thought of the life I had to live, my only piece to own in all of creation. I thought, then, of right from wrong, and a question occured to me: what had I needed, and what had I taken? Had I claimed too much? Had I forgotten what was mine, and what was not?
Yes. I had fallen a prey to thinking myself better than every other animal in creation. I had taken all our inventions for proof of my right to claim what I wanted, not because I should, but because I could. I had subscribed to the notion that humanity is what it is not. And with that belief, I had allowed myself to become a negative being, defined more by the absence of nature, than by its presence.
It was clear to me that with my life alone to claim, I had taken far more than my share; fully enough to sustain hundreds of lives; and in so doing, I had forgotten that Nature (unlike humanity) creates only what it can sustain. There was a lesson in that.
I decided to become vegan not because I felt it was wrong to eat meat, but because I felt it was wrong to take more than one’s fair share. It was wrong to “think” that my life depended upon things that it did not. I asked myself, ”must I make my own life by ending the lives of others? Is that necessary?” The answer was no. I could more-than-survive, I could LIVE on the vegetables of the Earth. For once, I would more-than-think of doing the right thing; I could feel it in my heart of hearts.
I love animals, one and all, because, in them, I see a wisdom and nobility that social conditioning has lost upon us. I believe that they will teach us a great deal about ourselves, if only we realize it is within our power to look. I believe Nature is within us still, though we beat it back mercilessly. I beleive that a life can be beautiful, even in the absence of worldly wealth. Most of all, I believe life is sacred, and that our every decision must pledge responsibility to that principle.
In closing, I will offer that trust in oneself is a long process when you’re starting from behind. It takes bravery to realize a different way, and it takes persistence, because (as we all come to realize), social conditioning runs deep in our midst. But everyday is an opportunity to pause and reflect on the consequences of so-called civilization. Nature asks that we trust what she gives us, but too often, we brand it with imperfection. We turn to “thought”, which we believe will save us from our meaner inclinations. We believe that by reducing mystery to its building blocks, we will find more in life to appreciate. But I would argue the opposite. When we resist cage our natures, as we do the animals, we lose touch with ourselves, until, finally, we are nothing more than a series of numbers.
I realize that my personal reason/feeling for becoming vegan, may not appeal to everyone, and this is why I have attempted to present three, very different perspectives. I leave you this day, with the affirmation that we are all animals, none greater or more fond of its life than any other. When we realize that the meaning of life is simply to live it, then we will base our lives upon peaceful coexistence. Until that day, my friends…
March 10, 2009 at 5:25 pm |
You added much. At first when I started reading this section I was confused because I read the first one from Sunday, however the additions added depth and clarity. You have more passion and more I reasons to counter logic minded readers. I still like Section 4 the best because as I said on Sunday, it shows your heart and mind which is very dear to me.
March 10, 2009 at 10:24 pm |
Of all your justifications, one can tell this is closest to your heart and shows the true reason for your chosen course. It also betrays your kind and loving character. Surely, if more people felt this way, the world would be a better place.
March 13, 2009 at 10:20 pm |
I do understand this argument, of being inspired to live without more-than-enough. But I wonder if you can see how your own testament is an exhortation to yourself as well.
“Among animals, it mattered not how I looked, what I was wearing, how much money I had, but they accepted my affection just the same. ”
The animals you make reference to here and elsewhere are domesticated pets, a small subset of the animal kingdom which could be regarded as the most artificial and unfree. It may be true that wild animals also do not care how you look, but they emphatically do not accept your affection. Animals by their nature are for the most part either indifferent or hostile (often violently so) to what we would regard as our “affection”. The hypothetical acceptance of your affection by undomesticated animals (rolly-pollies? injured birds?) is a projection of one of those special capacities of the human imagination alone, which is inter-special empathy.
“Nature (unlike humanity) creates only what it can sustain.”
This statement too is based on an Edenic, or domesticated version of nature. Because nature always creates more than what it can sustain. That’s how natural selection works. That’s why animals die and species go extinct. There is never “peace” in nature but when we find it there reflected in ourselves. Nature is full of cooperation and harmony, yes, but it is also full of fierce struggles and a deathly dissonance that never resolves.
We may be overloading the system with our human demands and encroachments, but the truth is that nature (or Nature) is not so fragile. Nature has and will suffer great warmings and coolings, and likewise in our threatened future through the unheralded births and horrific deaths of millions of new creatures it would evolve a new system to survive; With equanimity it would grow its vines over our now-solid structures as soon as it would turn our beloved cats back into being most feral.
“I believe that they will teach us a great deal about ourselves, if only we realize it is within our power to look. I believe Nature is within us still, though we beat it back mercilessly.”
I believe you are right on both counts. Let us pray to have the strength to explore beyond our peaceful and glorified parlor-door.
March 16, 2009 at 3:53 pm |
Thank you, all, for taking time to leave such thought-provoking comments. Knowing that I have readers, makes keeping a blog a much happier affair!
A few points…
In retrospect, I am surprised to find it so, that, indeed, I do refer exclusively to domesticated animals in my arguments. They’re a more accessible “subset” to my thinking, because I’ve enjoyed actual experiences with them.
And I ackowledge fully, the consequences of drawing analogues between animals I’ve known and animals I’ve only ever seen from afar.
It’s a relief that this admission does not ultimately devastate my argument for animal rights.
When I began writing down my personal reasons for adopting veganism, I felt obliged to confess my earliest contemplations upon the matter. However parochial, my inspiration at the time had been the love I felt for animals from the experiences I’d had in my youth and along the way to adulthood.
I remember playing with cats and dogs, though I rarely if ever ventured afar, to see animals in the wild. In the end, it didn’t matter that my experiences were limited to domesticated animals, as this feeling of loving them served its purpose in igniting my passion. I was not unlike the boy who, one day finding need of a hammer, discovers his love of construction, and goes on to become an architect.
Only after these remembrances of animals I had loved, did I come to look upon all animals independent of human determinism. Dog, cat, cow, tiger, snake: do they not all wish to go on living, as we wish to go on living? And what part should we play in their lives, if any?
Thank you for pointing out that Nature does, in fact, create more than she can sustain through the competition of species for resources.
Alas, humans now weild that power of selection. And with that power, we create more than we need. We select ourselves to outlive the natural usefulness of our bodies, and we select the lives of the animals upon which we rely for food. More abstractly, it might be said of humans, that they select only so much as Nature allows them to select. Or, perhaps, we ourselves, embody Nature’s will to select, since species fall and species rise with our choosing. What would perish in the wilds, yet survives in our hands. And there is the summary of our defiance. Though all of Nature wills a thing to dust, still, we bid it live. And it hobbles along, an artifice with all the seeming of life, yet its very existence is renegade among the shapes and forms of actual Nature.
As an animal, I reserve the right to defend and sustain my own life. If attacked, I will turn to confront my assailant. If hungry, I will do what I must to survive (even when survival demands that I eat another animal). As an animal, I am motivated by need. But as a human, I am motivated by choice. I find survival no longer demands my predation of other animals. Our technology is my exemption. And so I select for myself, my way of life.
Many in our societies, select without knowing, and submit themselves to the civilized whole. I would argue that these individuals, are not taking responsibility for their freedom to choose. Little do they think of the power they have, and of the lives they determine. When we order a hamburger at a restaurant, we are selecting the fate of a cow on a factory farm. So on, when we have cheese with our pasta, or milk with our chocolate. Rarely do we give consideration to the animals that we’ve sustained, whose existence Nature perhaps deplores.
When we pioneer a technology to fortify grain with calcium, do we ask a reasonable question: What about cow’s milk? Do we still drink it for our calcium, or do we eat our new calcium-fortified grain? Or do we consume both? In which case, are we taking more than we need?
I would politely suggest that technology is followed by responsibility. Where our needs are met, in place of something old, by something new and improved, perhaps we evolve. Or perhaps we add increase to our bounties, like pirates who dream of riches overflowing. Perhaps we tip before we balance, and this is our nature.
All I know is that life is precious, no matter the species. No matter the capacity to define its value. We treat animals as if they do not care to live or die, but we sustain them and it is our right to choose their fate.
Perhaps it is our right, but there is another way to live, on vegetables and plants. And isn’t it smart–isn’t it human–to consider the alternatives and make an “educated” choice?