Sunday November 29, 2009
Civilization is an artificial construct
By Jim Taylor
Cats are different from humans.
“Oh, wow!” you’re wondering. “How long did it take you to reach that conclusion?”
Go ahead – be sarcastic!
My musings started with the sudden death of an editorial acquaintance in Toronto that orphaned four cats. Fellow editors set up a trust fund to care for the cats. One editor became executor on behalf of the cats. Others visited the cats regularly at the rescue shelter.
That level of concern – for cats – might seem excessive. I think it was, in fact, an expression of grief. If we can’t do anything for our friend, the reasoning went, at least we can do something for her cats – rather like relatives trying to carry out a deceased’s last wishes. Completing an unfinished manuscript for publication. Visiting a women’s shelter. Or taking a long-planned trip to India…
The two male cats were quickly adopted. The remaining two – females, nine years old, never been outdoors – languished in cages.
Then the executor ruled that the two girls must stay together. At a home where they always stay indoors. They were terrified of the outdoors, she insisted. They would surely perish if allowed to roam.
Nature vs nurture
I’m not disputing her decision. She knows the cats; I don’t.
But my experience of cats doesn’t match hers.
When we got our current cat, at the age of five, we were assured he was exclusively an indoor cat. Indoor cat or not, Joey was fascinated by doors. Whenever one opened, he scooted through – even if it led only to a dead-end closet.
Inevitably, he managed to escape outside.
At first, he skulked around pressed against the walls of our house. Then he got braver. Two years later, he’s more outdoor cat than indoor. And he’s doing just fine.
Granted, we don’t have much motor traffic roaring past our home. But we do have raccoons, coyotes, great horned owls, and eagles. So far, Joey has managed to avoid becoming lunch for any of them.
The issue takes me back to the old nurture vs nature debate.
In the wild, cats will live three or four years, rarely ten. With warm housing, protection from predators, and dependable food, domestic cats often live to 20 or more.
But any cat deprived of its human life-support system will still forage for itself. Ancient hunter instincts still live close to the surface. Some cats will perish; most will adapt.
Not humans.
An average urban human, dumped in the Arctic tundra or the Amazon jungle – without technological aids like axes or sleeping bags – is unlikely to survive more than a few days.
The converse is equally true. A primitive hunter from Borneo might cope relatively well beamed into the Amazon. But he (or she) would be hopelessly clueless in Mexico City or Manhattan. And even less equipped to cope with a cocktail party in Malibu or a control room at Three Mile Island.
Lifelong learning curves
Most modern human environments depend on nurture, not nature.
That is why our species spends far more of its life span in a learning curve than other animals.
Reptiles and fish, generally speaking, provide no nurture at all. When their offspring emerge from eggs, they must instantly fend for themselves.
Among birds, both parents nurture their young until the fledglings learn to fly.
Mammals extend care longer. Often the mother alone bears that responsibility; I have never heard of a single grizzly papa rearing cubs, for example. Others – lions, elephants, and wolves – take a more collective approach to nurturing their young.
But no animal spends as long in the learning process as humans do.
Where a cat or dog will spend five to ten per cent of its life learning survival skills, we humans need roughly 25 per cent. Indeed, I could probably argue that we need closer to 100 per cent.
Those who limit their learning curve to an animal’s ten per cent become the street kids of Sao Paulo, the child soldiers of Sierra Leone.
Reverting to the wild
Civilization, in other words, is an artificial construct, a learned experience. It is not natural. Therefore, it is too fragile to be taken for granted.
I’ve watched several local organizations disintegrate over personal conflicts. I’ve watched communities suffer as a few property owners pursued private interests at the expense of the larger group. I’ve watched the global economy crumble when a few greedy individuals plundered it.
In cat terms, those supposedly domesticated people all reverted to feral behaviour.
Both Canada and the U.S., in different ways, have made healthcare their primary political issue. I don’t want to downplay the importance of that debate. But in doing so, we may be ignoring an even more important issue.
A nation of physically healthy people who live in a dog-eat-dog climate is no better off than a nation where people may not live as long, but are willing to make sacrifices for each other, for the common good.
In a civilized world, nurture trumps nature.
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Copyright © 2009 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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Your Turn
Rob Brown wrote that last week’s column, about changes in liturgical practices caused by fears of the H1N1 flu virus, was timely. “Funny you should write this, Jim. I’m proposing to our congregation what we go back to individual cups of communion ‘wine.’ I’ll let you know what happens.”
By coincidence, wrote Fran Ota, “This week I stopped in to Churchwares Direct, where I buy candles for the church. We got talking about the changes H1N1 has made in the way we serve communion. I was given a sample of a new product which has come out recently. It is a small cup with a peel-off lid, much like the cream containers we get for coffee in restaurants. Inside the cup is a small wafer all ready, and grape juice. Now, all you have to do is pass the presealed individual cups, I guess.”
Lee d’Anjou thought I had overstated the potential “ripple effect.”
“You haven’t described any policy or practice taught as essential or doctrinal in the Roman Catholic church or in any Christian church I can think of. You are describing what Roman Catholics, at least those in the Toronto archdiocese, did at the time of the SARS outbreak, and I didn’t see any ripple effect.”
Alex McGillvery thought I had missed the point: “The article on liturgies doesn’t seem to me to be about the changeability of ‘unchangeable’ liturgy, but about the power of our newest god. Science has taken a pre-emptive role over other reasons for our actions. We have scientists telling us to take precautions to stop the spread of the disease, and we figure more is better. If we can’t share the common cup, than surgical gloves and tongs are needed.
“I’m not suggesting we ignore H1N1, but we need to put it in its place. It is one more risk that we may or may not have to deal with.
“By the way,” Alex adds, “if you require folks to use hand sanitizer on the way to the front, you had better be ready to handle the reactions of people who, like me, react badly to the stuff. Do you have someone who can keep me breathing until the ambulance arrives? For me that is a much truer risk than H1N1.”
Cliff Gieseke noted the quotation from Janet Griffith: "In 2,000 years, no one has gotten sick from the chalice or the wine.”
“Are priests and others with a certain state of mind less susceptible to infections such as the flu?” Cliff wondered. He cited, as an example, Hindus who ritually bathe in contaminated waters, apparently without harm.
“Your column caught my attention, having returned to receiving communion while hospitalized this past summer with a spinal compression fracture and receiving a diagnosis of multiple myeloma, with possible increased risk of infection. This attitude and possible protection from infection when one has a certain state of mind has fascinated me. … In India, near Bangalore, in 1991, when a German fellow excused himself as a dinner guest with Indra Devi because he had a respiratory infection, Indra Devi laughed, and said she was not the least bit worried, that she never got sick. Years later we learned she had died in Buenos Aires, Argentina at age 102, after founding a chain of yoga schools there.”
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About My Books
Over the years, I think I have written (or ghostwritten) about 17 books. Several of them (mercifully) are no longer available from any source. But here’s a listing of those that are still available. The ones marked “WLB”, you can order from Wood Lake Books, either on-line at http://www.woodlakebooks.com, or call Wood Lake Books directly at 1-800-663-2775 in Canada, 1-800-654-5129 (Pilgrim Press) in the U.S. The ones marked “JT only” are now available only directly from me — as collector’s items, I price them all at $25 Cdn.
- Everyday God: Insights from the Ordinary
- Worlds in One
- Chance
- Seeing the Mystery: Exploring Christian Faith through the Eyes of Artists,
- Surviving Death
- Everyday Psalms
- Everyday Parables
- Letters to Stephen
- A New Understanding of Virtue and Vice
- Precious Days and Practical Love: Caring for an Aging Parent
- for Beginners
- Spirituality of Pets
(1981 and 2005, WLB, $19.95)
(1985, JT only)
(1989, JT only)
(1990, with William S. Taylor, JT only)
(1993, JT only)
(1994 and 2005, WLB, $19.95)
(1995 and 2005, WLB, $19.95)
(1996, WLB, $17.95)
(1997, WLB, $19.95)
(1999, WLB, $19.95)
(2001, WLB, $11.95)
(2006, WLB, $39)
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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I write a second column each Wednesday, called Soft Edges, which deals somewhat more gently with issues of life and faith. (It’s also included in Ralph Milton’s e-newsletter Rumors.) To sign up for Soft Edges, write to me directly, at the addresses above, or send a note to softedges-subscribe@quixotic.ca
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PROMOTION STUFF…
If you know someone else who might like to receive this column regularly via e-mail, send a request to jimt@quixotic.ca. Or, if you wish, forward them a copy of this column. But please put your name on it, so they don’t think I’m sending out spam.
For a lighter look at life, faith, and the lectionary, I recommend my friend Ralph Milton’s weekly e-newsletter Rumors. You can subscribe to it by sending a note to ralphmilton@woodlake.com.
For other web links worth pursuing, try
- Charlene Fairchild’s United Online site,
- David Keating’s “SeemslikeGod” page
- The Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity home page
- Dan Strizek’s Gathering Place for Creation Spirituality
- Alva Wood’s satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not terribly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
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