Too close to home. I feel very close to the spirit of the wolf and I find it heavy to shoulder the reminder that there are so many blood-thirsty humans in this mountain region that have their finger on the trigger ready to take out this beautiful and wild creature. Another example of the ongoing and doomed human war of colonization over Nature. Some want to protect their cattle herd - in itself, an invasive and sorry to say, stupid, domesticated crop to the Americas (compared to the very self-reliant, hardy, and indigenous buffalo) - but others, I have met these types, have no problem gunning these animals down for pleasure and sport. They do not take life for any other reason than to waste it. A trophy of pride for their murder; a cult-like initiation of proving ones supposed masculinity. I have seen wolves and coyotes pinned up to and hung on trees along the roadside by those who wish to make a point to those of us with a heart for this animal. Its repulsive, so full of hatred and fear. Its bioregional Cascadias version of lynching the blacks; exterminating the Jews, gays, dissidents, and otherwise maladjusted. Instead of ethnicity, this has been and still is a species cleansing. My observation: The wolf is not Fifi, the ornamental purse dog; the wolf is not Fido, the obedient and subservient hound; the wolf has never succumbed to human domination and control, thus it is persecuted to no end. In my own mistakes with farming and gardening, in very recent times, I have taken the lives of gophers - the fuzzy, cute ones that huddled amongst one another to keep warm in the winter at the bottom of the compost. They obviously feel love for one another and vulnerable in the midst of much bigger, stronger animals like myself - and I was rightly scolded by one of the more mature gophers that survived my relocation attempt. She literally got up on her hind-legs, looked me in the eyes, and chattered passionately at me before scurrying off to hide under a log. I likely slayed her children being insensitive and preemptive at the time. I feel a very deep sense of remorse for my actions; and now hold a very genuine connection to the familial ways of this animal. All living creatures have the right to inhabit a place. Asserting my dominance over the poor animals for the sake of keeping my crops healthy had been the wrong kind of thinking; particularly when ultimately attempting to encouraging biodiversity. It can sure irritate the heck out of me when they pull down some of my nicest plants into their tunnel, but I suppose its better to see it as a small sacrifice, humble service, and warm invitation to provide for those that wish to dwell with me and share in my partnership with the earth. Perhaps the plants that survive the gophers are the ones whose seeds ultimately pass the genes to become resistant to them. The same goes for weeds, nowadays. I can learn from these these interruptions that reveal flaws in my own system and teach me about myself without necessarily destroying them. All life is sentient and conscious - plants communicate with the web of life, too. Part of being human is to consume life - the vegetarians and vegans are not immune from their very humanity - however it is not our right to utterly waste it. In haste to declare the human species so intelligent for making artificial and temporary breaks from Nature, this species has become perhaps the least aware of its true relationship with the universe and most unlikely to continue to survive in numbers the massive and necessary adaptations upon them. There have been and still remain indigenous cultures that have a very developed understanding of what western scientists, who have a tendency to make the force of Nature a dead and inert subject, can only call ethnobotany. These people, often shamans, have a deep and intrinsic relationship with the plant world - sometimes so miraculously deep as to be able to directly communicate with the source, the life-force of the plant to know of its medicine and uses. If one needs proof of how complex and advanced other, non-mammalian lifeforms can be without mainstream, official acknowledgment, I suggest reading thoroughly into the existence and behavior of mycorrhizal fungi. They can be likened to pure and universal consciousness, itself. Or, better yet, one should eat a handful of potent psilocybin mushrooms and come into immediate presence with this phenomenon for themselves. With irony, our species - and substantial responsibility resting with the European-influenced culture and its legacy of conquest - has become the big, bad wolf. Ive learned particular lessons; and still, I always learn. I hope the same for others before they decide to pull the trigger and threaten this intelligent, playful, and healing being with extinction... again. The wolf is one of the most powerful and urgent animal totems for human beings to observe, befriend, and learn from at present. They are not the ravenous, blood-thirsty beast that theyve been made out to be. If anything, that is a reflection of ourselves; our worst fears of who we truly are and have potential to be. To sow death for this species is to ultimately reap it for ourselves. It is essential to have their presence on Earth and growing in numbers, not declining. I pray for the return and leadership of the wolf people; for the end of the reign of cruel and heartless human beings.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 00:09:13 +0000
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