Animals as Sacred For the Creek Indians, animal intelligence is a given. Indeed, not only do they, and many indigenous people, consider animals to be smart, but they see them as superior to humans. They were here first, after all. As Creek stories explain, animals created the world and then made us. We are related to them, but they are spiritually advanced, and we owe them respect. [1] The native people of the Arctic believe reindeer and caribou can understand and respond to human thought. [2] Australian aborigines recognize that animals are sentient. [3] David Aftandilian suspects that native peoples came to understand the wisdom and spiritual maturity of animals…
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The Stoics, Virtue, and Happiness
The Stress of These Times For anyone who has paid attention, this 2020 presidential election has been stressful. Now that we have a winner – and a loser – perhaps we can breathe. Yes, our current president is seeking salvation in the courts, but that’s not likely to happen. The threats of his followers may turn to violence, but the police and national guard are preparing themselves. The voting process was more peaceful than some of us feared. I suspect the transition in the White House will be as well. Around the country, there are calls for healing. It’s a wonderful idea, and I hope our next president and his…
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Addiction, Surrender, and the Holy
Surrendering to the Wrong Thing Twelve-step groups talk about surrender. Few of us, perhaps none of us, get through life without surrendering to something, but not all surrenderings are created equal. Some lead to freedom and restoration; others lead to suffering and eventual annihilation. During my late adolescence, I saw some of the ugliness that comes when we surrender to the wrong things. On my way to the Midwest, I ended up riding around with a young man who sold large quantities of drugs to local dealers. Some of them lived in homes where the lawns were trimmed and the siding newly painted, but most squatted in boarded-up apartment buildings,…
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Emotions, Healing, and Gun Violence
Understanding Emotions This column is about emotions. It’s about the importance of feeling and of knowing what we feel. When we don’t recognize our emotions, we become vulnerable to the manipulation of tyrants. When we refuse to look within ourselves at our own emotional storm, we project our evil onto women, men, and binary individuals; onto people of color, immigrants, the poor; and onto the vulnerable and the broken in general. A few days ago, seventeen more children died from gunfire, this time in a Florida high school on Valentine’s Day. So much hatred spilling out on a day of love. Such violence occurs, in part, because we refuse to…