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Sow and Piglet Suckling

“Our ordinary mind always tries to persuade us that we are nothing but acorns and that our greatest happiness will be to become bigger, fatter, shinier acorns; but that is of interest only to pigs.  Our faith gives us knowledge of something better:  that we can become oak trees”.     E. F Schumacher

I agree with the principle Schumacher is expressing. I can’t be quite happy with the analogy with pigs. We humans, the only creatures on the planet capable of growing in ‘consciousness’ should become aware that our ‘job’ is to grow into greater consciousness and in doing so, nurture the planet and its natural abundances.  

Pigs have lesser consciousness than humans, yet – like all fauna – have the inbuilt mechanism for nurturing their young that we call  ‘instinct’. We humans have the gifts of both consciousness and instinct, yet we (in western society) still largely remain children (acorns) and childish, stuffing ourselves on consumerism, stunting our potential for real development and instead, turning ourselves into ‘big, fat, shiny’ children, instead of adults.

Instead of eating them, I think we could take a few tips from pigs!

• What do you think?

Ann Isik
www.annisik.com