Today I saw a blog on Huffington Post about an unlikely friendship amongst animals. I love these. An elephant and a dog, a cat and an owl, hundreds of big dogs and little kittens, countless videos of animals loving each other when brought up together. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/03/lion-tiger-bear-negligence_n_4374091.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009
The thing I find so interesting about this story is that these three were not brought up with love together; they were brought up together with cruelty, and yet they found solace and love in each other. There was no human intervention of love.
I believe there is an evolution of love. I would even go as far as to say evolution is caused by love. Our own human species didn’t start out with love and compassion. We were just another wild animal fighting for our existence. The need to procreate and protect our families was necessary for our survival. Love of our babies drives all animals, birds and fishes to keep going, to keep striving through adversity.
Our complex consciousness lead us to a complex society but we still have the basic instincts. Love is fairly new in the overall scheme of things. Jesus taught love and compassion; something known in eastern religions for centuries but had not been brought to light in the ‘west’. Our whole society was turned towards love by this one humble man. He put us on a path of love.
Even love in marriage is a fairly new idea….. for millennia women were traded away or married for security. The notion of romantic love was not considered necessary for matrimony. If you got to marry the one you loved you were damn lucky! Marrying for love has only been about 100 years.
Back to the animals. It’s very obvious the love that dogs share with humans and cats, too, in their own special way. Those of use who have had both can testify to seeing a big dog handle a trusting little kitten. I remember my dog, Betty, holding up one foot at a time, worried crinkled brow, trying not to step on the tiny kitten wanting to rub her legs. When she laid down they would curl up in her warmth.
I always thought that ‘love was caught’ as a favourite guru used to say. I thought animals having contact with humans raised their consciousness and provided them with more information to incarnate to a more complex species.
But this article proved me wrong. These animals were brought up by a human animal, one who had no love and compassion. One who showed cruelty beyond what any animal would inflict on another. Cruelty that can only be human. But they had each other. A human had brought them together and raised them together but they developed love on their own. There is a lot more to survival than just food and shelter. That love keeps us striving through adversity. Isn’t that evolution?
monicle's chronicles 