A celebration of Love for all Beings
Striped Insights
Zebra waves a few sheets of paper in front of Okapi's nose.
-What is this? Okapi asks.
-This is a lecture script, says Zebra. -It's about arguments that can help change the destructive attitude towards the earth and its inhabitants. I think the holiday season is a good time to deal with this. After all, it is the festival of love. At least that's what is often said.
-Sounds not uninteresting! says Okapi. -That would be urgently necessary. Many humans seem to long for more consumption and resource use. And they seem to think that it is always the others that should take care of saving the world.
Zebra sighs. -I think we've talked about this before - haven't we come to the conclusion that it's about filling inner emptiness with external input?
-Indeed. That could be, Okapi ponders. -And I think it goes even further than that. Some humans don't feel themselves, they feel almost dead inside, and so they have to incorporate something that was alive.
-You think? Zebra looks shocked. -When I think about it, there might be some truth to that. Many humans don't recognize others as people. Sometimes not even members of their own species. They simply don't understand that they also have an interest in their well-being and life in general. This is even worse when it comes to animals. In order to do something about this, the text here deals with making contact with other living beings.
-Is it about communication? Okapi wants to know.
-That too, says Zebra. -I'll read you the beginning. The text is written by a human. It strikes a pose and reads in a sonorous voice: - “An important aspect for more connectedness could be the recognition of our human and non-human contemporaries as independent subjects with their own value. This changes the perspective - a subject can never be degraded to an object that must serve us. And a subject naturally has ways of expressing its intentions.”
-What is meant by "subjects" here? Does it mean something similar to “persons in different manifestations”?
-Something like this is how I would understand it, Zebra agrees and continues reading: - “There is reason to believe that all of these subjects have variations of ‘language’. The question is - how can we approximate our understanding? Undoubtedly, many humans who have or have had the privilege of having animals as friends know this way of communicating. Nevertheless, in some circles that consider themselves objective or scientific, the language and expression of non-human animals is considered non-existent or at least irrelevant. It is often claimed that granting animals a personality is anthropomorphism.”
- A famous accusation!, says Okapi and adds with a chuckle: -This is actually usually a sign that someone is arguing from an anthropocentric perspective. From the point of view and for the benefit of Homo Sapiens, because they judge other animals and their abilities exclusively from their human perspective.
-You forgot the second sapiens, warns Zebra.
-The first one is already questionable, counters Okapi. -I don't want to start with that... I'm just saying that it's not wise to ruin your own habitat and that of all other living beings.
-And not recognizing the beauty, Zebra adds with a chill. -I think the loss of the ability to feel and appreciate beauty is part of the problem that turns humans into destructive and insensitive monsters.
-But there are also humans who are working on it! I don't want to leave this unmentioned. I would like to thank all of those beautiful humans. And I wish everyone, also the others, a wonderful Christmas. Please remember that it is the festival of love and of returning light. And that love cannot be achieved through suffering.
-Do you refer to our friends who are misjudged by many humans as edible?
-Indeed. One way to take a different perspective on this is certainly to strengthen the feeling of connectedness.
-There is a suggestion for this in the text, which I will read out to you briefly at the end: “Connectedness can already be strengthened through perception, through listening to the echoes of life that surround us. The soul of one living being is the instrument for reaching out to another. It creates a movement towards each other. The soul can be understood as a transpersonal instrument.”
-This means, Okapi summarizes, -it is not bound to the individuality of a person, but enables a connection that lies behind every kind of communication.
-I think of it as the sparkle of life, a dynamic means that connects all living beings.
-So be it, says Okapi.
-And so it is, Zebra adds.