pursuit

my sister gave me an old book of essays she had lying around. I've read 600 pages of it in the last two days. no, I really don't know what's wrong with me.

but one essay, which I read just now, was about animal rights, and I thought it'd be really boring and/or sappy, as most things concerning animals tend to be, but it wasn't. well, it was a little bit sappy but I put that down to the long long time it's been since I've had a pet. I've lost touch with what it means to have a decent relationship with an animal.

but anyway, this article ("What's Wrong with Animal Rights?" by Vicki Hearne) talked about how animal rights activists tend to have it all wrong. the author delved into what rights were, in human and non-human terms, the pursuit of happiness and all that. it's not something I've thought a lot about, and I found her perspective delightfully provoking, despite the focus on her dog named Drummer.

she explained how rights don't exist unless there is first a relationship. and relationships, as she described them, usually imply possession/ownership. she mentioned pronouns. my. his. our. reciprocal relationships. your. their. in a friendship, for example, you are my friend and I am yours. in a professional relationship, perhaps I am your designer and you are my client. in familial relationships, I am the daughter of my mother. we belong to each other. Hearne specifically brought up that in discussing any rejection of those closest relationships "the word that applies is disown."

so where do rights fit in, then? well, when you're in a world full of other people you can't just do whatever you want. they can't just do whatever they want, either. Hearne uses the word obedience. "My friend obeys me as I obey her..."

really? but how? our observance and respect and appreciation one for another, our admiration and contribution and support, our charity and affection and love--all that equates to obedience? obeying social norms and relational expectations?

my will and your will take turns surrendering? I guess so.

wow. I've been thinking about that, and it astonishes me that I haven't put it in those terms before, for myself. I've long been of the opinion that the world is one endless set of rules we must learn and submit too: gravity, time, weather, friction, age, pain, consequences. but the fact that people themselves--other people just like me--comprise one subset of those rules is something almost crazy. but it's true: everyone I meet, everything in the world that is not me, is naturally imposing on my life, even in the most unassuming ways. that's what living means. that's what being in the world is. for you to exist everything else must exist as boundary for your own little hole in the universe. right?

and obedience to the rest of the universe seems almost second nature. I suppose we've all been dealing with it since we were born. maybe even before that.

I've wondered in the past at how infants can ever come to terms with the world and thought that their causeless screaming must be a response to all the weirdness they face, all at once, so young. it seems hard still, even after twenty two years of coming to. maybe it never ends... maybe there will always be new places/people/things/circumstances for us to be obedient to.