Those oh so vital indicators of personal wellbeing, are they really evil? Unnecessary? Unenlightened? The part of our brain that translates physical pain also registers pain in social distress situations. This is an established fact to the point that “heartbroken” people recover faster if they go on a regimen of aspirin for a time. Interesting, no?

Your brain has a hard time telling the difference between insult and injury. It ultimately doesn’t make this distinction. Even as much as we may be eager to deny it, not rocking the boat is easy if not healthy. Being treated as a tool, as an object, as a lesser class of citizen is insult. Our animal instincts tell us this. Herd animals become panicked when there is any sign of herd conflict. Fundamentally, rejection feels threatening, life threatening, and yet they don’t have to take responsibility for this. They have trained us so well we reject ourselves and it never needs to come to their attention. Is this just crazy for me to say?

We have been groomed for centuries. How do we handle our pets? Do we try to tell them they should put aspects of their behavior aside? Sit up and mind their manners at the table? Do we kill horses because they want to eat the grass they have access to? We treat our pets and companion animals with a basic acceptance of their nature, or at least many of us do, and we do this much more commonly with our animal companions than we do with our human neighbors.

I don’t believe in treating a pet like a human child. Dressing it in clothing and expecting him to be quiet just when you tell him to. No. That is more of the insanity, and humans don’t come in one uniform type either. You let a cat or dog be what they are. You can even come to enjoy them more for that. How well do you enjoy people?

I enjoy people that enjoy me in return. Ultimately, that’s the truth. What we all want is that freedom of presence in our own lives. If you could be fully who you are and behave as you have it in you to behave naturally, happily, what else would you want? Status symbols? Public achievements?

There are things we do really all want. We all want tools, and not all the same tools. We all have a vision for what we want in the world, want to see in the world, and we want the tools to do that as simple or complex as they may be, it doesn’t matter. We do not want resources. Seeing things as resources is unnatural. It strips things of any more meaning than abstract currency. We want food because it’s a tool, life support, not because it’s a resource but seeing it as a resource we farm land to death, treat animals in hideously grotesque ways because its efficient, and so on and so on. We even manage ourselves this way. This is why you hear of human resource departments.

Yes. They treat you like a tool. You are not supposed to be the tool. You are supposed to be an equal among tool users. We don’t want tools even for ourselves alone. The early carpenters wanted tools to build shelters, and often would be just as willing to build a neighbors shelter as their own. The reason being they knew that their neighbors thought and felt the same way and would just as readily share a catch of fish that they caught with their fishing rod.

We want connections as well as tools. We want relationships, just the sense of not being alone, but we want even more than that. We want communication. This is why things like the internet have not just changed business as we knew it. They have almost replaced it entirely.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~