My wife Ruby and I have been
cat owners for many years. A few weeks
ago we had to euthanize one of them due to irreversible pain and organic
deterioration. His name was Brolin, a
quite large feline and very furry, and one characteristic habit of his was
sprawling out in the middle of the floor on his back to sleep, oblivious to
what was around him, often reclining in a thoroughfare between furniture that
was of necessity much used by us.
One might think that he liked
living dangerously, doing the equivalent of some children’s experience of
hoofing it on top of a railroad track when the train is heard approaching and
seeing how long the balancing act can be sustained before the engine is right
upon them. But I rather believe that he
was quite oblivious to any danger.
So many times when I had to
walk from one room to another with Brolin stretched out before me, I got the
shakes. Especially was this so after I
developed the Lumbar Stenosis condition with which I am now permanently
afflicted. I was afraid I might kick him
accidentally, or trip over him and injure both of us, since I cannot always
trust my ability to stride easily, especially if I am carrying something bulky
in my arms.
But aside from the fear of
accident involving him, I got the shakes just seeing him stretched out with his
eyes closed and me with my much larger, imposing human body at his side. I realized that I had at that moment the
power to inflict great harm on that helpless cat and probably deliver a fatal
injury by nothing more than a swift stomp of my foot. It was not by any means a temptation on my
part or a wish; I would not have harmed him for the world. It is just scary knowing that one has in
one’s possession the capacity and the opportunity to snuff out another life, to
have another living creature totally at one’s mercy.
We have all had moments
driving a car when some pedestrian is crossing over in front of us using a
crosswalk, no other vehicle or witness is in sight; that pedestrian is our only
reason for slowing down or stopping. It
would not be hard to smash into that body of flesh and keep on going. We know we have just let another human being
live.
The power of life and death
forced upon us!
More unnerving than this is
reading in the papers about hit men, assassins, those in the business of
stamping out human targets – murder incorporated. The Islamic State certainly comes to mind,
and all those cults of extremism that operate on the assumption that Allah
awards the slaying and raping (no less) of the infidel. Just as disturbing are the accounts of street
kids, not in the Middle East but in our nation, wielding lethal weaponry,
enflamed youth who have somehow transitioned from that testy but innocent
childhood to murderous mayhem! At what
point did they bring themselves to sell out to those latent impulses we all
possess and turn themselves into riotous, bullheaded, dangerous
belligerents? What factors, environmental
or otherwise, did they encounter in the process of growing up that took them
down that perilous fork? What prevented
us non-violent, law-abiding citizens from opting for that path of savage
indulgence in the course of our maturing?
How did we come to be so squeaky clean?
But there is one thing we do
have in common with the lawless herd – we are all, in addition to whatever else
we may be or become . . .
Animals!
In fact, we are first and
foremost animals. We react to stimuli, not
always on automatic, but the reaction is inevitable nonetheless. We are psychosomatic creatures played upon by
the universe, by a host of influences and trigger mechanisms, the DNA not the
least of them. We learn habits and
acquire values and ideas from exposure to our primary environment, long before
we hear of other choices, good and bad, that can be made.
And all along the way there
are these little wormy critters playing upon us from within called
instincts. There are the basic animal
instincts and, if we are fortunate enough, we generate better acquired
instincts. And nothing is more
threatening than the struggle between what is flat out animalistic and what is
learned and acquired. When values and
ideals butt in on the animal drives, any one of a number of destinies can be
hammered out of that crackling fire. The
variables are quite plentiful, sometimes legion.
I am sure many of you, like
me, can point to those people and influences and institutions that have played
a saving role in your lives – family upbringing, the church, the synagogue, the
scout troop, special friends and mentors.
They all gave us that foundation we needed to throw off the yoke of our
animal drives. The drives have not gone
away, but their grip has been loosened; we learned that there is a level of
living that transcends the demands of the animal flesh.
Of course among those
transcending factors is the instinctual need for loving spiritual relationship,
for a communal tie that exceeds the primal bond of family and neighborhood and
draws us away from the morbidly murderous imaginings of our un-tethered
minds. For me it is the Christian faith
and the institution of the Christian church.
But of course there are others just as humane and just as
redemptive.
The person to feel sorry for
is the one who has never been exposed to the magic of kindred hearts beating
together. I am speaking of those who see
us humans as nothing more than animals and act accordingly. Not all to whom I refer are common
criminals. For Friedrich Nietzsche there was no such thing as
good and evil, just animalistic creatures called humans struggling for
survival. Human nature is
“bestial”. His was a philosophy of
despair. I doubt if he or any of his
adherents would say so, but that is what it boils down to. Life makes no sense. All is basically chaos. Sometimes, when it is convenient, we
make order out of it. It is an attitude that despairs of anything like dignity
or morality.
Now
maybe we think it takes a lot to get someone into that kind of mindset, into
that kind of world view. But it is
really a very attractive system of belief.
There is a kind of apparent safety in despair, when it becomes that
overt and active. You perceive yourself
as free from all restraints. You do not
have to answer to anybody. The good news
as set forth in the New Testament, or wherever, would seem to such a one at
best a joke, at worst enslaving dogma or an opiate. Most of those setting fires and exploding
loose cannons in our contemporary world are not consciously strict Nietzscheans.
Most of them have probably never studied the man’s philosophy. But in plain fact they do belong to his
club. They are enflamed lost souls who
find among their fellow marauders on the streets the “saving” community they
have never enjoyed, and they have found their sense of purpose in ill-defined
objectives. They belong to “the gang”,
the gang devoted to blind rage.
Human nature is complex;
human nature is confounding to all who attempt to explore it and trace its
boundaries and contours. There are no
easy answers in the quest for what we call the good life, but there are many
clues, many signposts. We are all a work
in progress, whatever our age, but without the tools for self-knowledge backed
up by cultivated self esteem we would, like those street derelicts, drift with
an unruly wind and perhaps become enslaved to it.
Pray for them and for peace
and the contagion of compassion and tolerance in our changing world.
To
read other entries in my blog, please consult its website: enspiritus.blogspot.com. To learn about me
consult on the website the blog entry for August 9, 2013.
