Their Pain of Living

We all know or see people here and there whose child(ren) have died. We have witnessed or read the tributes from grieving parents and how they ache so badly they do not feel they can live another moment.

I have experienced grief, but not as a parent. I find that pain hard to envision as by pure witness I have at times felt my breath lock up and such deep sorrow that I wonder how it can be any worse…

I have heard a human mother scream for her child in agony. I have also heard this sound – this wail of pure emotional pain - in other species. It is a terrible, bone-chilling sound where you immediately feel at least part of their profound suffering.

I have watched mothers try with all their strength and will to defend their children, but these gentle vulnerable beings are no match for the bullies. No match for those who demand their blood and bodies and who show no mercy.

Many species – maybe even most – are loving, protective mothers. Yet we repeatedly thrust this intense grief upon them. We take and kill their beloved babies, or females are kept and entered into the slave pool as soon as physically possible to begin to assault her for forced breeding and we will emotionally traumatize her too…and we do this repeatedly until their bodies can give no more. Lives as slaves - no matter how well we treat our slaves - is still a life of slavery. Feeling another is ‘not like you’ and is therefore OK for barbarism, violence, confinement, enslavement, forced breeding, oppression, and exploitation are dangerous and deplorable ways to think.

A better way to think is that we have certain morals – most of us do – and we can just choose to live by them. We can just agree that inflicting violence and suffering on another is something to be avoided at any time we can. We can just agree that we do not want to cause each other harm. We can just live in peace and have incredibly happy, fulfilled lives without completely destroying someone else.

I make a difference. It doesn’t matter if anyone thinks I don’t, because I know better. We all do. It is just whether we want our influence in the world to be as positive as possible or we want to intentionally ignore and/or misunderstand the language of suffering to continue thoughtless personal convenience and general societal acceptance.

Willful ignorance sometimes allows us to hold tight to the belief we are humane and caring when we are acting in the most inhumane ways imaginable. But willful ignorance does not actually make us humane - it just makes us ignorant.

Please let your actions reflect your morals. Go vegan