Question:
I enjoy your column and appreciate your advocacy for animals. My question is this: What do you think is the highest value and purpose of animals in our lives? I see them as our teachers and healers -- not just "pets.".
S.M., Naples, FL Jun 05, 2005
Answer:
The philosopher Meister Eckhart wrote that "Every creature is a word of God." That's how I have always seen them. Since childhood, they filled me with awe and wonder, and, yes indeed, they were my teachers and playmates. But above all, through their presence and love, they were evidence to me of the nature of the sacred -- an intimation of divine omnipresence.I like what my late friend and Nobel laureate Konrad Lorenz said about we humans in terms of our aggressive behavior toward our own kind, and cruelty to animals: "Far from seeing in man the irrevocable and unsurpassable image of God, I assert ... that the long sought missing link between animals and the really humane being is ourselves."
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