(Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
che la diritta via era smarrita.)
Midday this way of life we’re bound upon
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
Where the right road was wholly lost and gone.
— Dante’s Divine Comedy, Incipit

I don’t know about y’all, but I have been at this point in my life for long time, on more than one occasion. Dante’s genius was never more evident when he penned his Divine Comedy, and his insights into human nature are like little nuggets of pure gold found in a large pile of offal. What occurs to me this morning is that this particular point in our lives is one that we can easily get stuck in, never finding our way out of the dark wood, and spending our days in misery. I’ve been there, and I’ve done that, and I still can’t really say how I went about finding the road back to sanity. It’s like that memory is a skittish horse, that won’t let me approach to fasten a bridle. All I know is that one day, the light came  back, and I could see the way home once again. It’s a scary time for all of us, and I only wish I could share whatever it was that helped me to get home. I suppose it is the kind of lesson that each of us needs to learn on our own, in order to really understand the lesson to be learned…….

“Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.” — Charles Darwin

Although I’ve never understood it completely, I am aware that most people believe that they are intrinsically better than animals; these folks are the ones who object when they are included in the animal kingdom at all, voicing loudly that “I’m not an Animal, I’m a Man!” Their entire self-image is based in the belief that animals, as well as humans of a different culture, skin color, or religion, are lesser creatures, though if queried, most, if not all, would be unable to list any coherent reasons why they believe that. The ones who do reply will usually refer back to a religious principle that that they learned before they reached the age of reason, with the additional attitude that states, “The Book is divinely inspired, and therefore infallible. If it’s in the Book, then God said it, I believe it, and that’s the end of it.”

This belief is  attractive to many folks, as it removes from them all responsibility for their actions. As long as they can convince themselves that they were acting in God’s name, or working God’s will, then they can lie, cheat, steal from, or oppress any number of humans of a different color or religious belief. They know**, as long as they confess their sins, they will be forgiven, so there is no consequence for acting toward others as if they were an enemy.  If they are automatically superior to other humans, why should they act any differently toward the animals who share this planet with us? There is nothing in it for them to make them consider changing. And it’s a little difficult to picture one’s self as the Lord of Creation, while admitting that most other animals are equally endowed. Just not going to happen. Having observed humans all my life, I can say with authority that 99.9% of humanity will never come to the realization that other creatures are as essential to the proper functioning of the Universe as are they.

**Why shouldn’t they know? After all, they are the ones who decided what characteristics God has, and they are probably continually patting themselves on the back for having had the foresight to include the quality of forgiveness for sins, in exchange for confession. In my humble opinion, frank admission of a vice does not turn it into a virtue……

— How many surrealists does it take to change a light bulb?
–Two. One to hold the giraffe and the other to fill the bathtub with brightly colored machine tools.