"Have you asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?"

Here we go again, on such an exhaustive topic – we start “once again on the subject of animal rights” (Coetzee 61). Many people seem to get fed up
with the controversy. In fact, they feel there is no controversy at all. The activists’ “animal consciousness and ethical relation with animals [seems] jejune and sentimental” (Coetzee 61). True, with all the other problems that rest on humanities shoulders, it seems trivial to bother about an action that is such a cultural norm.

That sense of caring, urgency, and deep feeling of unshakable bond seems to lie in a fundamental culture difference. It reminds me of the Disney classic Pocahontas. Though a majority of Disney movies tend to center around animals or very generously include them as supporting main characters (My theory is because animals are the only ones with the cuteness and innocence appropriate for children. Humans, especially adults, are too corrupt and vile.), in Pocahontas we see the how two different cultures of people interact with the world around them. Pocahontas is the daughter of the Native American tribe’s chief. Therefore, since an early age, she has been very strongly instilled with the Native American culture of deep appreciation of nature. She talks to a tree for advice. Her
best friend is a hummingbird. While completely unrealistic, these aspects very effectively portrays how much respect she has for her natural surroundings. All of nature is treated as equal to humans. They have the same spirit of life which we hold. In the song Colors of the Wind the lines “I know every rock and tree and creature has a life, has a spirit, has a name” can very well be equated to Elizabeth Costello’s declaration that, “to be alive is to be a living soul. An animal – and we are all animals – is an embodied soul” (Coetzee 78).

The Native American’s ability to have sympathetic imagination in the context of nature is very vividly contrasted by the juxtaposition of John Smith and his evil, greedy crew whowish to exploit every profit possible from the land. As they chop up the sacred trees “which scream soundlessly” (Doniger 94, X747), they have no doubt that they are “on the right side” (Singer 86, X743). They only have eyes for their cruel profiteering, and in dominating their surroundings personify the thoughts “that man is godlike, animals thinglike” (Cotezee 67). They do not feel for the nature around them, so they do not see the harm they are bestowing upon their surroundings, besides the obvious intentional deceit of the natives.

I feel as though I am making a comparison as cruel and ruthless as that of that of Elizabeth Costello’s comparison of the animal massacre to the Nazi horrors. I am not saying that anybody is a horrible person for not being vegetarian. I also concede that “Vegetarianism and compassion for animals are not the same thing at all” (Doniger 96, X748). But I feel like that compassion many times comes with vegetarianism – in the house I was raised it, they are directly related. If my mother fails to gently sweep out a rampant insect in the house, she always says God’s name and apologizes to “her poor baby” when she must spray it with insecticide. In that same spirit, we were taught to be thankful for the food on our plates, for dear plants were plucked in order for our bodies to be nourished. Also, the same deduction that Jenny made about her reasoning to eat plants – because the least amount of harm is done – is the same reasoning that was instilled in me at my temple.

I suppose it is a simple matter of culture. It is how we are raised. It is a question of our personal philosophy. There is no way to change the culture of the world – that is what makes it such a beautiful place. However, perhaps we can ask people to look a little more closely at the world around them. Look into the precious eyes of another being. It is scary when you can read the eyes of your dog, cat, or even a squirrel running across the sidewalk. But it happens, because we can. “Language is..the place from which compassion springs” (Doniger 104, X752). Eyes are the windows into beings souls. Thus, if not give up eating meat, I think the world would at least have a little more compassion from learning to understand “the silent language of the eyes. (Doniger 104, X752). A little more compassion is a little more compassion – it rubs off from one aspect of life to another. Maybe reading eyes could be the key to a happier world…




Colors of the Wind Lyrics:

You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know ...

You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

How high will the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind