“There is no fundamental difference between man and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.” Charles Darwin
I got to be honest, I wasn’t going to write a story and I still may not, because this might not see the light of day. I started out the week, reading an article about how much we have underestimated the intelligence of all living things. It even indicated how bees are capable of learning.
The mundanity of life interrupted my creative rhythm to the max and it has to do with my 24 year old Lexus. This beauty was gifted to me about 11 years ago and we have been together ever since. Along with everything else I can’t do, anything remotely mechanical or having to do with machinery of any kind is just something I totally suck at. This Lexus has been so good to me, I can’t even put it into words.
Every now and then, the old girl has burped and farted, but the fixes have always been minor. After around 186,000 miles, the transmission has called a time out. I will spare you the details, but if some make up doesn’t do the trick, we are looking at around $5K for an organ replacement. Even though I don’t have many cards in my house of cards, yanking one can cause a catastrophe of untold proportion. At the moment, I don’t know what the outcome will be, but we can safely say it has seriously fucked over my mood.
So, I am sitting here thinking I really don’t feel like writing a story with any bit of esoterica about it. Will the world end if I don’t pump out another story, missing a week? Why should I even give a shit? The answer is, I have no idea. I know I love writing and it would be like missing a get together with my special lady and feeling like shit, because I love her that much.
Some time before the Lexus decided to ruin my life, I read a story about all sorts of experiments being done with sentient beings. I know last week, I used one of the four vows that are like the pillars that Zen stands upon. The very First Vow has to do with sentient beings being numberless and it was what struck me about this one story.
In the past, I have written about Darwin and evolution and how we have taken his work to justify our supremacy over all living beings. There is no point in creating a list, because it would be infinite, as it would include all life, as loosely defined as you could possibly imagine.
By what authority do we have this supremacy? Is it because we think and nothing else does? By the way, that’s really a good one, because who do you think wrote the rules? Darwin’s admission above was considered heresy and quickly buried by the rule writers.
I know I have written before and told my grandson too many times that I will take the heart over the mind always. Feelings trump thoughts at every turn and I mean all the time.
The rules we have authored have allowed us to do whatever the fuck we want, even with other people, let alone the birds and bees and I ain’t talking about you know what?
It wouldn’t shock you to know that I am neither a scholar or historian. However, when I read that quote from Darwin, I was knocked on my ass, because I figured him to be the guy who built that ladder, with us on top and absolutely all other life on the rungs below.
It hit me that Darwin’s theories on evolution were conveniently manipulated by us humans to justify our supremacy, not only over all other life forms, but over each other, too.
I started thinking about the cosmology of indigenous cultures, no matter how far back you want to go. They all realized they were part of something far larger than themselves, an infinite mosaic of interconnections. Their lives are filled with rituals and reverence for all sorts of beings and occurrences. Totems abound in names and every day life. These “primitives” were and are so much more aware of the world they inhabit than this advanced civilization of ours.
Today, we are disconnected from that way of thinking, at least most of us. Everything on this planet is here to serve our every whim. This whole mind thing, the ability to think, is so out of hand, it is ludicrous. I can’t believe I almost left out the religions we have created, inventing Gods that reaffirmed our ruling over all the world, not to mention over any competing Gods.
The funny thing is, the smarter we are getting with technology, the more we are learning about all other sentient beings, even ones we never even thought of in that way. Trees fucken communicate. Did you know that? Crows can actually count! Chimpanzees have been seen self-medicating. The lead scientist said, “one day the knowledge of chimpanzees could save human lives.”
You know, it’s funny. It’s like creating a test that only we can pass and we all get 100% and nothing else has the Cliff Notes. What the hell do you expect? There are animals that can sense disaster before it occurs, before we have any idea. However, they can’t pass those tests, so they are not as smart as we are.
“I think, therefore I am”, an oft-repeated quote, from Rene Descartes, is the rallying cry for “modern man”. I think it is an incredibly near sighted view about who we are as human beings. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but we are actually a product of our feelings, not only blasphemous, but grounds for getting left back, due to poor results on that test of ours.
I swear, this very second, I got hit with the word that squeezes in between the two in my title and it is INTUITION. OK, all you smart asses, where do you want to put that one on the ladder? It is not simply about sensing something, it is about reacting to it. So, let’s say you are an animal, species irrelevant, you sense danger AND you run from it. What is that? How many times has our mind been made up before we even think about?
Any half-way decent story has to go somewhere or there is really no point to it. We are exactly where we are in the world today, because we THINK and FEEL, mistakenly believing, we are the only species with these lofty qualities. It has provided the license for the shit show we now call today.
Personally, I don’t THINK we are smart enough to learn a whole new, internal vocabulary, one that incorporates a much clearer view of that infinite mosaic of interconnectedness we share with every single sentient being. I am being iron clad realistic about this sad prognosis. Yet, sorry to say, we call it the progress of man! Just look around at the wonderful job we are doing.
I am still not sure what to do about the Lexus and I don’t know what it thinks or feels about its transmission. I wish it could tell me.
RANDY, A HUMAN BEING, FIXED MY LEXUS JUST NOW!!!
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