So here it is, nearing 2 a.m. in the morning and I can’t
sleep. Being me, I decide life would be better with a pb&j and so I make
myself one. As often as not, I’ve been eating pb&j for lunch lately because
a number of the people I work with are vegetarians of some sort. I haven’t a
clue what a vegan is as opposed to a vegetarian, but I suppose that since they
don’t eat animal products, they avoid dairy products. A glass of milk is
essential to a pb&j and I often have a cheese sandwich, so I guess I’ll
never make it as a vegan.
But anyhow, this morning madness has me thinking about these
things. I’ve been watching the Ken Burns documentary on our national parks and
trying to find out more about John Muir. Apparently, he extended his Christian
beliefs to conclude that being in harmony with God’s entire creation and all
the living things created is a way of life. Muir was known for, upon occasion
of finding a new plant, communing with it for hours in an attempt to
understanding it. At the same time, he and Teddy Roosevelt would go into the Yosemite
Valley and live off the land for days on end.
I suppose this is sort of along the lines of Heinlein’s
Stranger In A Strange Land protagonist, Valentine Michael Smith and the concept
of “Grock” that filled many of my generation with thoughts of all things
living. Yet Smith thinks there is nothing better than eating his friends after
they pass away.
Across the river from me, the State of Washington has
legalized pot. But nobody’s quite figured out the distribution system yet. But
it too, to some people I guess, sounds like another way of being in harmony
with nature. At the same time, the fact that it helps us to remove our veneer
of civilization is also a factor. And how many animals have we killed to
satisfy the yearning for “munchies” that go with the use of the weed?
I observed something the other day. An eagle swept into the
river and grabbed a fish for its meal. They call eagles and similar birds
“raptors” and that means they tend to be vicious little monsters.
In fact, there is little in nature that is harmonious. When
you get down to it, it is pretty much kill or be killed. I personally am quite
glad to be on top of the food chain. I can eat anything living – plant or
animal – that I feel like. Take a burger, for example: I suppose that killing the animal,
butchering it into pieces and then grinding it into a pulpy, bloody mess before
setting it on fire is not exactly harmonious, especially from the animal’s
point of view. I was talking to someone who loves sushi and I can’t begin to
describe how that fish is violated to make it.
This summer, I was at a park along the Columbia River Gorge.
I discovered a remote apple tree, filled with fruit reaching it’s ripest time.
I was quite happy to pick more than a few apples, along with other fruit in the
park including plums and berries. There was also a pear tree at one campsite.
But the fruit was out of my reach. Every day a few pieces fell and I hoped to
grab one. But each morning, all the pears that had fallen in the night showed
evidence of consumption by either animals or worms or insects. And I realized
we compete for plant food as well. More than three decades ago, I planted some
corn in my yard and enjoyed watching it grow. But just as it was beginning to
get ready for picking, I came home to find a mob of squirrels attacking it.
As humans, we can be very selective in the choice of our
prey. I’m working at the Lewis & Clark National Park at the site where the
expedition spent the 1805-06 winter at Fort Clatsop. The men were so tired of
fish from the nearby Columbia river and its famous salmon, they killed more
than 100 elk and had them boiled three times a day instead. And they used the
elk’s hides for clothing and blankets as well. Yet the journals of the party said
they couldn’t wait to get back over the mountains where they could find buffalo
and other cattle. I can’t imagine
being skinned and tanned for clothing. Yet there have been incidents of that
being done.
One of Muir’s major points is that we have ravaged our lands
and killed off many of the species that once inhabited it. Bison used to roam
the plains by the millions, yet in my lifetime I have seen them only in zoos or
in parks where they have been protected. Yet even there, they are attacked by
these nasty, biting flies.
My dog just climbed up on my lap to get petted. He has been
on a diet of dog food. But every time I cook after just feeding him, he wants
what I’m having. And this gentle companion took a rather nasty nip out of my
friend a few years ago. My son’s cat took a nip out of my granddaughter and the
little bitch was on death row for a while until my son figured out that the way
to avoid the problem was to have my granddaughter be the one to feed the little
beast. These somewhat friendly carnivores we call our pets and companions have
simply learned that it’s easier to be nice to people and get food than to have
to hunt it.
Even the things we are unable to see are fighting to kill
us. It’s flu season and we are urged to get shots, wash our hands frequently
and isolate ourselves when we become sick. This year, I have endured double pneumonia
and even my own body is out to get me as I passed a kidney stone.
In other words, the idea of harmony is a lot of bull (think
about how many burgers are served every hour). Life at every level is out to
consume some other sort of life, be it animal or vegetable or both. We were
born predators and our veneer of civilization simply means we let others do our
killing, butchering and cooking for us and pay them.
And sometimes that veneer goes away. The other day, some
young man ran amok at a nearby shopping center: a place where my son and his
family, her family and even my ex could have easily been. The man gunned down
three people, killing two strangers before turning the stolen weapon on
himself. We look and ask “what’s wrong with this person?” Yet there is that
killer within us dating back thousands of years. We call it mental illness and
try to understand. Yet if we wound up as survivors of a nuclear war, who of us
would not want to have that same weapon to defend ourselves?
Going back to Lewis and Clark for a moment. Clark brought
his slave, York, with him on their journey. York saved the expedition’s ass
more than once. He remained a slave and was even threatened with beatings and
being sold after the return. We may not eat one another, but we often treat one
another like animals. My mind wanders to how women are treated in certain
Islamic cultures. Another of my favorite Heinlein stories is about a revolt
against a theological despot. As armies endured bitter conflict, the priestess
who served the prophet tore him to shreds. I wonder if something like that
could happen today.
Finally, all of this chaos leads me to wonder what heaven
would be like? God created the earth in this ecology that destroys. So how has
he created the next step? I’m getting so that I’ve lived way more years than I
have left. And I’m sort of looking forward to finding out. In the meantime,
it’s nearly 3 a.m. now and I think I’m going to go to the local 24-hour
McDonalds and choose between slaughtered cow or chicken. It’s really something
I was born to do – sort of.
