Animals
and Spirituality – a Personal Journey
By
Dianne Waltner
Last Sunday, we had a wonderful
service celebrating our relationships with our animal companions.
Today, we continue and expand on
that topic, including the rest of our nonhuman brothers and sisters
in honor
of World Animal Day, which was actually Thursday, Oct 4. This date was chosen
because it
is the
Feast Day of St Francis of
convention of
ecologists to highlight the plight of endangered species. It has since grown to
encompass all
kinds of animal life and is widely celebrated in countries throughout the world
with
special events
to heighten public awareness of animal issues and to encourage people to think
about
how we as
humans relate to animals. To do that, I will share a bit of my personal story
of how I came
to be
involved with animal issues, and the very important part animals have played in
my spiritual
growth,
perhaps encouraging you to also consider the part animals have played in your
lives, both
directly and
indirectly.
I grew up on a farm in rural
Moundridge, about 60 miles from
view of
animals - don’t be needlessly cruel, but they are basically here for our use and
we have
“dominion”
over them to do with what we wish. This attitude never really set well with me
- and
eventually, was
one of the major reasons I quit going to church for several years. I was always
more
in
agreement with Alice Walker when she stated, “Animals of the world exist for
their own reasons.
They were not made for humans any
more than blacks were made for whites or women for men.”
For as long as I can remember, I’ve
had a soft spot for animals probably at least in part because,
after some
health problems at age 4, I ballooned into a really obese child. And growing up
a fat kid in
a small
rural school was not easy. Throughout most of grade school, animals and books
became my
best
friends and I was much more comfortable in the company of our dogs and cats
with their
unconditional love
and acceptance than with other people. Looking back on many painful
experiences, I now
realize that they taught me valuable lessons about compassion and sensitivity.
A turning point in my life came
when, at about 16, I came across the book Man
Kind? Our Incredible
War
on Wildlife by Cleveland Amory, a scathing indictment of the hunting
and trapping industries.
Although I always felt that hunting
and trapping were wrong, this book served to help cement those
feelings and
realize that I wasn’t alone. There were actually other people out there who
felt the same
as I did.
My dad actually helped to really set
me on the path to vegetarianism. When I was in high school, I
remember being
outraged upon hearing that people in
expressed my
outrage to my family and I’ll never forget Dad’s response, which was, “So
what’s the
difference
between eating a horse and eating a cow?” My immediate response was that “a
horse is a
pet and a
cow is just a farm animal,” or something to that effect. But I knew that was a
very
unsatisfactory
answer. If I was opposed to the slaughter of horses, how could I condone the slaughter
of cows,
who were also sentient beings. This question continued to haunt me over the
years, and
again as I
learned about other cultures who dined upon cats and dogs. How could I condemn that
when the
bodies of pigs, cows, and chickens continued to be on my plate. However I
rationalized that
they would
have been killed anyway, so I may as well eat them. But, to quote Unitarian
Ralph Waldo
Emerson, “ You have just dined and however
scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the
graceful
distance of miles, there is complicity.”
Humans are remarkably adept at
denial, and I continued in my complicity for many years.
I moved to
years, I
decided to get a cat. Although I had had cats at home on the farm, I discovered
that it was a
different
experience living with an indoor cat, 24/7. I really got to know Tash’s
personality and
discovered a
wonderful, loving soul.
After living with three other cats,
I became even more convinced that animals were very intelligent,
feeling
beings, very much like us. Although I had known this in theory, I now was able
to actually see
it as
fact.
I also got involved in the local
animal rights movement
(with fur protests, tabling, passing out info)
and met
some real live vegetarians. I was also introduced to the books, Animal Liberation by Peter
Singer
and Diet for a New
as a few
others that had a tremendous effect on me, if anyone is interested in looking at
them. I also
have other
information that I would be happy to get to anyone who is interested.) I soon
found that I
could no
longer justify the torture of animals just to satisfy my palate.
Seeing The Animal’s Film really sealed the deal. This is an extremely powerful film
which explores
our
relationship with nonhuman animals and deals with all forms of animal abuse,
going inside factory
farms,
slaughterhouses, laboratories, and fur farms. It shows how steel jaw leghold
traps work and
what often
happens to animals caught in them. It also includes some military footage of
animal
experimentation as
well as some hunting footage. My defenses and denial were totally broken down
and I was
hit with the full impact of animal suffering. As Mary Lou Randour describes in
her book,
Animal
Grace, “To absorb the extent and depravity of animal suffering
can raise us to a new spiritual level. . .
Our expanding awareness may lead us
to feel that we are experiencing disorganization of the self. Writer
Joanna Macy teaches us, however,
that what feels like a disintegration of the self in these periods of
intense
transformation is not the self breaking down, but its defenses. The breakdown
of these
defenses needs
to be welcomed rather than feared, for they have dimmed our awareness and
stunted our
compassion. Their dissolution can free us spiritually... The structure of the
old defensive
self must
die so that a new, larger, and more encompassing structure can be born.” This
was what
was now
happening to me. At times the emotional
and psychological pain was so incredibly intense
that I had
thoughts of suicide. I knew that I could NOT continue living the way I had been
- I either
needed to
change my way of life or end it all. Since you see me standing here today, you
can
probably guess
what my decision was.
Of course, for me this meant becoming
a vegetarian, which was much more difficult 20 some years
ago than
it is today. So, I actually lived as a closet vegetarian for several weeks
before summoning
the
courage to “come out” to family and friends. Considering the experiences of
some of my other
now
vegetarian friends, I was very lucky in that most people around me, including
my immediate
family, were
supportive and considerate.
Now, instead of being a mindless
task, grocery shopping became a mindful, spiritual act in which I
could actually
put into practice my newfound awareness. And cooking was so much more pleasant,
not having
to deal with blood leaking out of those disgusting styrofoam meat containers.
And not
having to
wonder what was really in those hot dogs. Eating truly became a celebration of
life in that I
no longer
required the death of another being in order for me to live. Vegetarianism thus
became an
integral part
of my spirituality. And I discovered a
whole new world of food which I had never
encountered
before, including tofu (which really CAN be very good), tempeh, textured
vegetable
protein,
hummus, falafel, tabouli, couscous, and many other wonderful ethnic dishes.
In addition to changing my eating
habits, this new awareness also entailed learning about the many
other ways
that my life and my purchases up to this point had been contributing to the
pain, suffering,
and death
of countless animals. Most (if not all) of the soaps, shampoos, cosmetics, and
household
cleaners I had
been buying were tested on animals in painful and lethal ways like the
LD
(lethal dose) -50 and Draize eye irritancy tests. And
charities I had supported in the past were also
conducting
painful animal experiments.
So, I could no longer buy the same
products I had been buying or giving to the same charities. I
began going
to health food stores for my cleaners as well as my vegetarian foods. And, for
those
times when I
couldn’t afford to buy these cleaners, I learned how much cleaning could be
done with
just baking
soda, water, vinegar, and borax. And, since these products were also much
better for me,
animals, and
the planet as well, it was truly a win - win- win situation. I also actively
searched out
those
charities that did not fund horrendous animal tests, but instead actually helped
people and did
much more
valid non-animal research.
One of the most unexpected “side
effects” of this lifestyle change (and it IS truly a lifestyle change)
was the
incredible sense of peace and deepening spirituality I felt. It had taken a
great deal of
emotional energy
to keep my true feelings from surfacing, and now that I had accepted and
embraced
them, I was
in some ways liberated and felt more at peace with myself. And more energy
could now
be spent
in trying to rectify the situations that I had been denying for so many years.
And I was thrilled when, on my
first 1st Sunday lunch here at the church a few years ago, there were
2
wonderful vegetarian soups. As a matter of fact, that Sunday
was totally vegetarian and I have to
say that
that was a major reason that I came back and eventually joined this church.
There are still issues that I
struggle with, and there are still times when I cry myself to sleep at night
over all
the suffering and injustices in this world. But I know that things can change,
and I feel that it’s
now my
turn to try and repay, in some small way, the animal kingdom for all the gifts
they’ve given me
over the
years by working towards a more humane. more just, and
more loving world for all of us,
human and
nonhuman alike.
I would just like to leave you with
this thought, taken from the book The
Good Good Pig by Sy
allowed to
grow into a 750 pound pig: “Christopher Hogwood knew how to relish the juicy
savor of this
fragrant,
abundant, sweet green world. To show us
this would have been gift enough. But he showed
us
another truth as well. That a pig did not become bacon but lived 14 years,
pampered and adored
till the
day he died peacefully in his sleep - that’s proof that we need not “be
practical” all the time. We
need not
accept the rules that our society or species, family or fate seem to have
written for us. We
can choose
a new way. We have the power to transform a story of sorrow into a story of
healing. We
can choose life over death. We can let love lead us home.”