I found this quote by Henry Beston and it pretty much sums up what I think and feel about the Animal Kingdom. To me, animals are so much more than just a cute, fuzzy pet to cuddle up to or someone to go running with; animals are their own beings and deserve (in my opinion) much more respect and rights than (some) people. Animals live in their own world and survive by their own instincts. Since most of the time we cannot understand their voices- we humans are the ones who mess up their schedules.
Please read slowly and carefully to grasp the full meaning of his words.
"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby the feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken a form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth."
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2 comments:
Wouldn't it be interesting if just for 1 day, the animals and the humans could switch places...how would WE be treated????
LOVE MOM XOXOXOXOXOOX
Good one knittles.
We project our humanity on other things, or beings, because we lack the understanding of all the complexities in an infinitely complex and ever changing (evolving) universe. One can have your same outlook on humans themselves, because we are animals. Think of how you were raised (the environment, the culture) and think of what you've witnessed in another land on a seperate continent. How do you project your humanity (western perspective) on those animals? I know I had my feelings and opinions about the animals I coexisted with in the U.K.. I'm sure you have had a much broader perspective on human behavior and primitive morality than we can come to grips with in a westernized (modern) society. I'm thrilled that you have continued to keep your brain going and have looked deeply into your feelings on animals AND humans. I'm very proud to have the chance to know your ANIMAL and HUMAN side. Intimately, I might add, which is even saucier! I love you very much!
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