Thursday 15 April 2010

The cows are worried


Now the cows were worried. They had had wide ranging discussions with the hens, the banyan tree, her, the toads, the slugs; well everyone. They had trekked all the way to talk to the polar bears, the giant sequoias, the blue whale, even tracked down the last of the tigers, the elusive yeti; in short they had been really thorough and very professional. But now they were simply worried. And they needed to think hard.

For, you see in this world, to offer an opinion about anything, even something that impacts you personally or you are responsible for, you have to take position under narrow, iron-clad categories created by men. And then it is decided whether you are with ‘us’ or with ‘them’.

No one quite understands whom this ‘them’ and ‘us’ refers to, but then the cows in the many discussions mentioned above realized that humans aren’t very rational after all. And the issue why only such irrational beings get to decide what is good for the Earth did also come up, but then that was another matter. Right now what the cows were worried about was these iron clad categories.

What they had to say was very important. But who’d pay attention if they didn’t file it under some category. However, they also understood that the moment they did so, the ‘us’ and the ‘them’, whoever they might be, would get into a fight and what they had to say would die even before it saw the light of day.

Ordinarily, fitting things into neat categories was something they’d associate with simple minds, unable to comprehend the complexities of life. But it was rumored that humans had the biggest brain, at least that’s how humans claimed they knew what was best for the earth. It was all getting too fretful and worrisome. And at any moment the sun too would set.

All of a sudden the cows had an ‘eureka’ moment. They looked at each other and offered a celebratory moo. And recollected the famous words, ‘We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.’

Rejecting all the old categories, they created a new category. And now they wait for the discussions to begin.

5 comments:

The Wallcreeper said...

You've summed it up very aptly... clubs, categories, guilds, black and white, us and them, either-or ... our fences are too narrow.

Anvita Lakhera said...

Yes, all these 'us vs them' conversations and discussions are exhausting. And on a more serious level in no way helpful to our nation or the world at large.
I needed some info. Do you know of any website/book about wildlife-friendly gardening in India...I mean on growing native plants that encourage bees, butterflies etc. I've been searching but without much luck. Thanks in advance.

Anonymous said...

After the GM issue is dealt with I want to go back to sacred cow conversations. There seems to be a bit of magic there with a peacemaking effect.

Anonymous said...

"What they had to say was very important. But who’d pay attention if they didn’t file it under some category. However, they also understood that the moment they did so, the ‘us’ and the ‘them’, whoever they might be, would get into a fight and what they had to say would die even before it saw the light of day."

whoa! I love these lines. They sum up sooooo much. cheers man! awesome post!
~w.s. :-)

Anvita Lakhera said...

@Madeleine Love I too will join you. On both issues. But first getting GM crops banned :)
@w.s. thank you :)