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Alongside biology textbooks, we tend to have our own Noah's arks, our personal taxonomies. Some classify animals by their degree of danger, or affection, or the ability to feel and express; others divide sacred animals from those damned. Some find themselves of the same class as animals.
Personal taxonomies motivate eating patterns. It's a personal choice to be respected. But when someone feels superior and self-righteous for being vegan or a vegetarian, there must be something wrong somewhere.
After all, herbivore is still vore
In my taxonomy there are smiling and non-smiling creatures; plants and animals are life forms of the same family. So if I shouldn't eat meat I mustn't eat vegetables either -- which would be ridiculously anti-social and anti-nature in our kingdom of the created.
I've been taught that women and men are created in the likeness of God. So I believe God smiles too; the Laughing God probably ventures beyond Taoism.
king of the jungle | |
| DOH, a deer ... | they usually catch me off-guard: India, America, England, Wales, Japan, Sweden, France, ... In Malay we refer to such surprise encounters as terserempak (noun). In Chinese we call destined encounters yuan-fen. |
queen of the jungle | |
| Ladybird of Geneve | the Ladybird of Geneve graciously sponsored the movie Triangular Buildings |
fishy corner | |
| I got fishy | Ibaraki (Japan), Chattanooga (USA), Copenhagen (Denmark), Ischia (Italy), Ericeira & Coimbra (Portugal), Jeju Island (Korea) |
| Malaysian fish market | my hometown, which boasts an old town: Ipoh |
| Swedish fish market | Lund (Sweden) |
| fish facts | inorganic elemental composition in 83 varieties |
horsey corner | |
| horses picked me up | they picked me up ever-willingly whether in Malaysia, Wales or England. At the east border of Geneve there is a good man called Pablo who insists that I ride him, not his stable mates; otherwise he gets really mad... |
| power in the lips | |
| baby boys with moms | |
now, the smiling species |
When we were little a grasshopper landed in our home, my twin and I were frightened. Papa said: insects too have a share in this world. The point is: not only insects and animals but everyone from the smiling species too! Later during my sixth form at Sam Tet Secondary School I learned the word catholic (no caps lock and no shift throughout). Oxford Dictionary defines it as all-embracing (without any reference to any church). No one is inferior; no one is exclusive. In my teens I read a memorable article in Nanyang Siang Pau; what a pity that I do not have a copy. Mapping the hierarchy of discrimination, it ran something like this: the ministers look down at the scholars, the scholars look down on the rich, the rich look down on the poor, the poor look down on the dirty worker, the dirty worker look down on the lame, the lame look down on the prisoner, the prisoner look down on women in the sex trade, who in turn look down on men who fall in love with fellow men. The scroll rolls on, as you and I readily testify. These could have been saved if one has seen the world (thus overcomes an ignorant mind) or if one has a sufficiently spacious heart (in Mandarin we call it dafang, an antonym to xinxiongxiazai). |
birth rightsWe all have the right to blessings, thanksgiving, talents and vocation. These form the essence, well beyond the importance of voting rights and democracy (where we tend to trip ourselves.) blessings & thanksgivingWhen a child is born relatives and friends bend over cradles to greet the infant -- with an awesome wonder, "What will this child grow up to be?" Experientially for the adult himself, this is a renewal of hope and optimism. When a baby is named, the name remains silent until pronounced by family and friends, who will call out this name with an affection uniquely addressed to him. We all have the right to feel blessed, to acknowledge and celebrate the shower and the joy. No one is forsaken by creation. That's why we can't tell someone else to be ashamed of himself. born to make a splashWe are all endowed with talents, independent of socio-economic and medical conditions. Yes, even persons whom others deduce as should have been birth-controlled, or as having null mental facilities. They too, like you and I -- we are all born to make a splash. |
by Mary Chin
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SMALL PRINT all material on this site is copyright of Mary Pik Wai Chin under a Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. You are welcome to share (copy, distribute, transmit) under the conditions that you must attribute the work to the author; you may not use the work for commercial purposes; you may not alter, transform or build upon this work |
