what I learned from animals
The following is a brief but poignant reflection from Nancy Janisch of Conversation in Faith on recognizing the profound creatureliness in the eyes of animals, a privilege many of us have encountered through the companions in our own homes ...
What I learned from animals, I learned from looking into their eyes. Look into the eyes of an animal and someone looks back. If you grew up with animals you might take this for granted. It took me quite a while before I realized how astonishing this is. It’s not just a dog or a cat or a horse looking at you; it’s this dog or this cat or this horse looking at you.
Just a few hundred years ago scientists and philosophers debated whether animals were sentient beings or merely unfeeling machine-like organisms. If they had stopped to look into the eyes of an animal, I think the debate could have been resolved much more quickly. Look into the eyes of an animal and someone looks back. There is the mutual recognition of the existence, the uniqueness, the individuality of each other.
At the same time, looking into the eyes of an animal is not exactly like looking into the eyes of another human. There is a familiarity in animal eyes, and at the same time an otherness. Their experience of the world, in some ways similar to ours, is nevertheless different than ours. My cat and I live together, but her world is not my world. We may both eat, sleep and sit in the sun, but I cannot assume my experience is identical to hers. Her “catness” shapes her experience just as my “humaness” shapes mine.
When I look into the eyes of an animal, even young ones, I am looking into old, ancient eyes. There is a wisdom within them that is inaccessible to me. Ways of knowing, unknown and unknowable to me.
Years of looking into the eyes of animals has taught me there is more, much more at work in the world than I can comprehend. There is knowledge and there are ways of knowing that I am only dimly aware of. It's a strange and wonderful world we live in. Mystery and wonder all around us, if only we have eyes to see.
Nancy's last paragraph makes me wonder about the unique relationship animals might have with their Creator as well, different than our own being made in God's image, but perhaps quite substantial in its own way. Or perhaps it's a relationship which God is working toward blossoming in the redemption of the new heaven and new earth.
(many thanks to Nancy, a regular and valued contributor, for sharing "What I Learned from Animals," originally posted on her blog Conversation in Faith and prompted by reflections at Middle Zone Musings and The High Calling; a special thanks as well for the beautiful photos go to Amy Sondova and Patti Monaghen respectively)
January 11, 2011
Reader Comments (3)
Nancy,
I have often thought about animals that their eyes show age beyond ours. I think it is incredible how, unlike us, while they are each unique, they nonetheless retain the instinct and wildness of their ancestors, in a way we as humans do not. A cat is born knowing how to pounce and stalk - look into those intense eyes. While he is experiencing an event truly his own, it is at the same time an event played out billions of times before in his instinctual memory. That sort of wisdom seems to be missing in humans, who when given a bow and arrow would need years of training to bring down game. It makes animals very special and fascinating to have around.
Thanks for your response to Nancy's post, Lauren, I just passed it along - Ben
Thanks for your comment Lauren. It is always amazing to encounter another sentient being. Now you have me thinking about the relationship between an individual, inherited knowledge, and community!