I did get out recently for time among the trees and critters. This time of resurgence of people heading to the accessible and established trails has me finding little used areas near them. Walking in them offers something peaceful contrasting with goings on in the city. My neighborhood is about the same, but downtown isn’t. I walked into this green area:
It seems the sounds are more telling than snapshots:
The birds:
And more of their songs:
When leaving the maintained road or trail and going deeper into the woods, I think about how I could be prey to a bear or big cat. And how organisms just eat each other. And how our procurement of meat and poultry differs from their predating. And how our level of consciousness enables us to be above unnecessarily killing and eating compared to other animals’. We don’t even need meat because we’ve developed cultivation. People, including me, are appalled by the current culling occurring due to the meat and poultry industry losing market share and labor force during this pandemic. But they’re not talking about how animals are killed under normal circumstances for our eating. As much as I enjoy meat and poultry, I don’t think I’ll return to buying and eating it. The idea of breeding and “raising” animals to just be killed, sold, and eaten is something I can’t keep hypocritically opposing. I feel bad for the involved labor force too, but they obviously don’t have it as bad as the animals. Of course I’ve no sympathy for the farmers and agribusiness. They’re lamenting their loss of market, labor force, livelihood, and tradition. But their livelihood depends on death. Sympathizing would be absurd. They’re lamenting culling over butchering. It’s hard to believe I’ve supported this. And that I still miss eating these animals. I don’t even physically feel different vegetarian than I do omnivorous. And regarding tradition, as a teacher of mine said, traditions are made to be broken.
Thoughts on Trails 