Beyond exceptional
In the mailbox this cold, late Fall Sunday morning . . .
. . . otherness, that beyondness, is what we commonly call mystery — the realm of experience inaccessible to our analytical minds, unaccountable by reason, and yet a stratum of reality we touch beyond doubt in those rare transcendent moments, as palpable as a lover’s hand, as alive as prayer. – Maria Popova
Human exceptionalism takes many forms but most share an assumption that our species displays singularly complex ways of being, thinking and feeling. On this perspective, other animals’ capacities are inferior, and so other animals’ lives are also seen as inferior . . . It’s only a myth, though, that other-than-human animals inevitably live moment to moment. Many mammals and birds remember and learn from past experiences, and anticipate with joy or fear what may be coming next. . . when human lives are seen to be of ‘unique value’, it becomes that much easier to slaughter farmed animals for food; confine monkeys and rodents to suffering in research laboratories; and confine dolphins and whales in theme parks, where we ask them to perform tricks. . . We owe it to all beings with whom we share Earth to construct a world that moves beyond human exceptionalism. We owe it to ourselves as well. – Barbara J King
. . . there is more going on than we can see or understand, and we need to find a way to lean into the mystery of things — the impossibility of things — and recognise the evident value in doing that, and summon the courage it requires to not always shrink back into the known mind. – Nick Cave
. . . . [T]he process of conscious transformation is aken to turning a cargo ship at sea. A large vessel with that much momentum can’t make sharp turns, while as little as a one-degree course correction of the rudder, if held steady, will take that ship in a very different direction over time. . .Insight is the beginning of transformation, not the end. – Oren Jay Sofer
A ship is always safe at the shore but that is not what it is built for. – attributed to Albert Einstein