Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?
The world we have created is a product of our thinking.
It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.
Albert Einstein
Many years ago I saw a newspaper article about protesters at a pharmaceutical company. They were contending that drugs were being introduced for human use without sufficient lab testing, but what caught my attention was a photograph of a young woman holding a sign that said, WE ARE NOT ANIMALS! Well, I’ve had a very good time chewing over that.
My enjoyment came from telling myself that I am certainly not a vegetable or a mineral, so I must be an animal. My brain liked discussing that birds, amphibians, reptiles, and most certainly mammals, fit with us humans better than a carrot or a piece of granite. In fact, I didn’t feel that I had much at all in common with any plant or mineral. Since then, whenever I hear animals put in a different category than humans, I feel somewhat smug in thinking that yes indeed, we are animals!
My brain has gone on to explore just how much we have in common with other animals. I might have my hands occupied with preparing a meal while my brain is busy discussing this relationship. “Just look at the other animals that use tools,” I’m thinking. I later look this up to confirm that indeed, chimpanzees, crows, orangutans, elephants, dolphins, sea otters, gorillas and octopuses are all on the list. Of course, my brain then gets side-tracked on what an octopuses’s tool box might look like. Other times I might dwell on a magazine photo that shows other animals demonstrating affection, such as elephants mourning their dead. Our pets make easy comparisons to us humans; a cat might never admit to liking us, but dogs certainly seem to enjoy some of their kin as well as their people. So much pondering after seeing that one photo.
I have to admit that our relationship to other animals has a less glamorous role, which I have not dwelled on. I even suspect that scientists added the additional kingdoms of “fungi, protist and monera” to distance us animals from those smallest of all creatures. After all, the not-so-flattering side of these connections is how much we are literally made up of them. These microscopic organisms actually outnumber human cells in our body by ten to one, living within us and providing vital functions for our survival. DNA sequencing of microbes in our mouth, nose, skin and intestines conclude that they are critical for our survival and actually aid in the digestion of food and its absorption into our bodies. My brain says that’s pretty wonderful, but I understand my great-nephew’s statement that it’s “sort of icky.” Either way, we humans are deeply entwined with other beings.
Nevertheless, my rumination on how much we have in common with other animals has actually gone on for years. It’s only recently that I’ve begun to realize how we humans, although animals, are also intimately connected to all plants and minerals on our planet. The first chapter of Vandana Shiva’s book, “ONENESS vs the 1%,” has opened the door for me to feel this connection. Unlike the delight I enjoy with our relationship to other animals, this realization feels both more tenuous and essential if we and this beautiful planet will survive.
It was easier for me at first to relate to plants than to minerals. We agree that plants are essential for the oxygen we breathe, but what pleases me is that we animals are essential for the carbon dioxide that plants breathe. Plants, by converting this CO2 into sugars, carbohydrates and starches, are then able to grow. The next step, of course, is that these sugars serve as an exchange with the soil’s microbes for the minerals that our bodies need. When realizing our dependence on others, it feels good to me that at least we have CO2 to give in return!
Contemplating our interdependence with plants makes our connection to the soil’s minerals also apparent. The “Periodic Table of the Elements” contains 118 elements, most of which our bodies need, though some only in trace amounts. Yes, our complex human bodies are made up of not only the animal (and fungi and protist and monera!), but also the mineral kingdom. And our bodies couldn’t survive without the fuel and building materials that plants provide.
I admit that feeling cocky about our human role on the planet was enjoyable to me, but I am coming to feel a deep awe in recognizing our total and humble relationship to all of life. Even more than this enjoyment, I can now see that acknowledging our connections to all others on this planet is essential if we humans are to survive. In the animal kingdom, I have seen that other species don’t feel separate from us, so why should we?
I mention that connection because I’m eager to divert this discussion to tell you of interactions I had with other animals when in Juneau, Alaska. Although I was there to work, June’s long daylight hours allow time for both working and walking. When I was hiking paths away from other people, unconcerned ptarmigans, Alaska’s state bird, would forage for food around my feet. A marmot, described as a “small ground squirrel,” won my heart when he or she kept advancing closer to hear my human talk. Repeatedly getting down on all fours to come closer, then standing at sweet attention until we were only a few feet apart. Another time, a small songbird sang while following me down a path until she did a final circle, touching my cheek with her wing. And when a black bear and I were startled to face each other on a steep ravine’s path, our mutual fear changed to curiosity as I talked softly and he got down on all fours to sniff while I was negotiating passage. That moment still feels sacred to me and I hold it with deep gratitude.
How did we humans come to feel so disconnected to others? Acres magazine recently had an article stating that scientists are surprised to learn that trees work cooperatively with smaller neighboring plants for their mutual benefit. Have we instead been looking at all of life as if it’s as competitive as our culture? Perhaps the industrial age had a huge role in separating us from the earth and each other when nature’s inert matter became raw material for exploitation. Did this also allow white settlers in the new world to kill for profit and sport rather than just survival? Similarly, how can today’s corporations and farmers use chemicals and GMO’s that destroy our planet’s soil, water and biodiversity? When we humans feel separate from all other life on this planet, we do irreparable damage. If we could instead change our thinking and realize that all life on earth is as intricately connected as a single spider’s web, I believe we could save ourselves and our beautiful planet.
Becoming aware of our essential connections is how we begin to honor Nature’s complexity. This change of thinking would have the wonderful outcome of us humans being able to feel compassion for all living things as well as each other. We would commit to the future by caring for our seeds, air, water and soil. We might be living in an age now called the Anthropocene, but as we become aware of our need for biodiversity, we help to preserve all life. We do need to eat and to have shelter, but we would learn to enjoy Nature’s gifts with gratitude and without exploitation or accumulation. We would also become aware that divisions between human groups, based on gender, race, religion or wealth, are meaningless. We humans must learn to work cooperatively with all life on this planet, including each other.
This might be the awareness that allowed Indigenous People to both survive and sustain their environments. I was taught by a Lakota Sioux friend to say,
Mitakuye Oyasin. This translates as “We are all related.” I admit that I’ve only recently understood that “all” means “everything” on this planet. Now it is with both joy and obligation that I recognize we are indeed intricately part of the animal, vegetable, mineral (and those other tiny kingdoms) web of life. Living with more connection and sustainability is far more joyous and survivable than feeling like a smug and isolated human animal.
