To: Carolyn who wrote (2621 ) 7/20/1999 6:22:00 PM From: Joana Tides Read Replies (2) | Respond to
Carolyn, verklempt right with you from such soulful true dog stories. I love 'em all too, never was one to scream at a spider or a worm either. I'll always save any creature in distress no matter how "lowly" or at least move them to a more comfortable and dignified place if there's nothing else I can do, too...always watching out for 'em.... betcha that's pretty universal around this board. Catching 'em in a cup if I don't want 'em in my house or car to put 'em outside instead of unthinkingly killing 'em (although if it's something infesting my environment got no choice but to get rid of 'em and always apologize to 'em for it too). So what if maybe natural creatures (does that make us "unnatural creatures") don't have thumbs or mathematical brains, don't know how to destroy forests to make their homes or blast a hole in the ozone layer with chemicals they dig from underground and then mix up in a cooker, or connect to the internet on a puter...who is really to say for sure what their thoughts are anyway... I don't feel as though that automatically makes them lower beings on the spiritual order than we are, necessarily. Who's to really say how smart they are or if all those species might be all talking to each other and excluding us? Maybe the dogs and cats and some birds and fish and horses and a few others are the only ones with the patience to try to live alongside us for long - has nothing to do with species intelligence or ability. All creatures know of love, friendship, teamwork, family, grief, humor, purpose, and they get p.o.'d at each other individually too, just like we do. Some of 'em are uglier than we are and some of 'em are much more beautiful and some smell worse and some smell better than us ...all by our standards who knows what theirs are... my opinion about the natural world (certainly not original) has always been that we think we're the only ones with enough might and power to build or destroy this world, but if we go too far they just might All get together in an instant to give us one great big surprise! And they'd know who their friends are and who isn't if that ever were to happen, too.
