There are times when I have found myself in a conversation with someone and I begin to feel like the proverbial lunatic. The person so detached from a reality in which everyone else has agreed to participate. At some point, I took the red pill. Or maybe I took the blue one. Who knows. In these conversations, the bottom line for the other person (or people) is always about humanity.
Continue reading Do Fish Deserve Care?Tag Archives: animals
In This House, We Speak ‘Cheese’
Speaking of communicating across species, let me introduce my three little stooges: our cat, first dog, and second dog. I’ve had pets my whole life – birds, cats, fish, dogs…we even had two hermit crabs once, but they found their way into the classroom of my son’s preschool – partly on account of our older dog at the time wanting to put them in his mouth and walk around as though they were his. Sharing a life with these critters means understanding them. We make ourselves their care givers with a power dynamic that never changes throughout their lives – eternally dependent upon us. It isn’t just a courtesy to learn their mannerisms and determine their needs. It’s an act of welfare.
Continue reading In This House, We Speak ‘Cheese’
Regenerating Life and Love: The Animals (and Fungi)
At the risk of forging through the gate this week with another complaint about the human species, I want to lead with a personal frustration I have when I hear individuals reduce the importance of a species that is going, or has gone, extinct with a flippant toss of the hair, followed by a casual “who cares?” This is often embedded within a conversation intended to discredit environmental programs that favor a small endangered organism over that of human interest. Well, I’m pretty sure I speak on behalf of the organisms at risk of becoming extinct that they care. They probably care a great deal. Moreover, we should all care. Perhaps, if we just took the time to realize their worth….
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