Free association sounds simple enough to us now, because we live in a society that has been greatly influenced by its invention. Basically, free association is saying everything and anything that comes into your mind, whether you think it should be said aloud, or not. It is a way of allowing your "unconscious" wants and desires to make their way forth into the "conscious" world.
Sometimes I wish I could go to a therapist, so that I could just say anything and everything that comes to my mind. My mind is weird. It travels a mile a minute and makes strange associations between things I hear, thoughts I have, things I have learned, or experiences I have had. Minds are just plain strange things.
Lately I have been thinking a lot about life as an entity. Or maybe I could call it a life-force, if you will. What is life, exactly? How does life come to, and depart our world? I mean, I know about souls and stuff, but do all things have souls? I know some religions that say that they do, and I really like that. I mean, there is something beautiful and awe inspiring about considering the world around us, and knowing that it is living and growing, right along with us.
Where I work, each treatment room has a large window in it. These windows overlook a large ledge, that is sheltered by a roof overhang on top. The conditions are perfect (10 points to anyone who can name the song that that phrase comes from) for a mama bird to build her nest there; and one did. A mama pigeon built her nest upon the ledge, and raised two baby birds. I have been watching her for weeks now--first I saw her and the daddy build a nest, then I saw her sit on that nest day in and day out, then I saw two little beaks emerge from underneath her wing. After that I watched as two little fluffy, yellow babies squeaked and squawked as their mama fed them, and then watched as they grew so fast into tiny little imitations of their mom.
All the while I thought about life--how it came suddenly, and grew quickly. How does life do that? Isn't it something so precious and something that should be so revered? Even in a pigeon, I came to respect that fact. That's why I was so shocked the first time that I heard someone callously say that "we should take a bebe gun to them now before they turn into more flying rats".
Now, even though I am a sworn tried and true animal lover, I still understand why people call them that. They are dirty creatures that scavenge left over food and debris. But no matter what they do, or what they are, they are alive.
They have life inside them.
They have the same life force in them, that we have in us--doesn't that deserve some respect? Shouldn't it deserve admiration? They came into the world trying to do the same thing that all of us do everyday: LIVE. And why should we interfere with any other creature in its desire to live? What right do we think we have, to do that? Would we ever want that done to us?
In my humble opinion, the world needs a whole lot more of one certain characteristic: compassion. A sympathetic consciousness of others' distress, together with a desire to alleviate it. It's a major cornerstone of every world religion, and rightly so. Think about the problems that could be solved, the love our world could experience, the things we all could do, if there was more compassion. It could be used more in homes, between family members that should love and care for each other. It could be used in a work place, or in a school. We would never have to worry about a disgruntled fellow student mauling us down with a shotgun, because they were distressed. It could be used in society, in civil government, or even in wars.
Think about it. We could leave our doors unlocked at night, without fear of harm, because we could trust that all those around us care about our welfare. And we would care about theirs.
Amazing the things pigeons can teach, if we only look for the lessons around us. But then again, life is just kind of like that.
4 comments:
Very interesting thought process you took me through...and although I agree pigeons want to live do they know about life & death? I love the idea on compassion, but what would all the cops do without crime? And, would suicide bombers then just work at a 7/11 instead? :-)
Deep thinking blog, again, I love it! I love the pictures of those flying rats. They are beautiful birds inspite of their filth. I seem to always get in trouble when I do too much "free association" speaking.
I love this post.
I really liked this post.
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