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Dear Wendy and all, Just wanted to say that i really liked the little story about respecting the place animals occupy in the world. There is a scientific metaphor called the "Cosmic Calender" which compresses the entire history of the universe into one year, allowing one to understand better the evolution of life. Life on Earth first stirred around 3.6 billion years ago, shortly after the Earth's formation around 4.6 billion years ago: on the "Cosmic Calender" this roughly corresponds to around April. The Dinosaurs arose on Christmas Eve, the first mammals around December 26, the first insects the following day, followed by the first birds on December 28. (It is now pretty much accepted that one branch of the dinosaurs evolved into birds). The first creature that looked even remotely human appeared in the late evening of December 31. Recorded human history occupies only the last 10 seconds of December 31. So, our tenure on this planet is extremely short compared with cosmic evolution. Yet, we have managed to vastely affect the environment in so short a time, mostly for the worse. We need to always remember that the earth was not made solely for our use, to do with as we see fit, without so much as a by your leave for the other lifeforms which call it home. I believe that Carl Sagan's book "The Dragons of Eden" contains a very good description and discussion of the "Cosmic Calander" if anyone is interested. My presentation is simple and may not be totally correct; i'm not a scientist, merely someone who has always been fascinated with the history of the universe and the evolution of life. At 5:30 10/22/95, Wendy Tebay wrote: >Helen and everyone, <some snipped> >Before I go, I thought I'd share this, which I personally find beautiful, and >is hanging on the wall in front of me as I type: > >We need another and a wiser and perhaps more mystical concept of animals. >Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in >civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees >thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize >them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so >far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal >shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours >they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have >lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not >brethren, they are not underlngs; they are other nations, caught with >ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and >travail of the earth. > >from THE OUTERMOST HOUSE by Henry Beston -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Peace from the Clouds" \--*MH*--/ Jeffrey Romanyshyn Email: [log in to unmask] "Myth Hawk" 28/Diagnosed 3yrs/Sinemet CR 2x/Sinemet 10/100 as morning booster and as needed/Eldepyrl 5mg 1x/NADH 2x/Rolfing (Deep Body Massage/Lift Weights-Cycle--4-5 times per week "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist after he grows up." - Picasso. "A society that has long lived with oppositional thinking and a deeply embedded belief in dualism denies the dynamic interdependence of the opposites--which pulsates at the core of myth--what a mythic way of knowing is all about!" - (C.A. Burke, L. Hogan, & J.R. Romanyshyn) If you wish, please check out some of my poetry (written under the psuedonym ROM CARPATHIAN) and other fine literary creations at the M. David Lewis Enterprises HomePage at: http://www.mdle.com/