The Mesh

I don't think people will ever put themselves at the same level as an animal. Students in our class may have a more open mind about it, and people who think ecologically might think that we're the same. I doubt though that the minds of "takers" of the world will ever put themselves on an even level with anything else except humans.

Back in the paleolithic times, humans were considered hunters and gatherers. Everyone, and everything was even. Men and women live egualistic lives. Hunters only hunted what they needed, and gatherers only picked what they needed. When we move into a more civilized age, like the neolithic age, early humans started learning a basic for agriculture. Then I guess around 10,000 B.C.E, Mesopotamian colonies were domesticating animals, growing plans, and learning how to drain and flood the land unnaturally. This is when humans began taking. They put themselves in charge of animals, and plants. I think this is when humans first began to think that Earth was created for us.

Not only do people put themselves on a different level than animals, but they put themselves on different levels from people. Everyday I drive home from school and see the same man wearing a dirty black shirt, and some old jeans standing on the median holding up a sign saying "Will work for food. I'm tired and hungry. God is luv." You're not going to tell me that you've never looked at that man and thought that you were better than him. Look at our lives. We live in nice homes/dorms, take things when we don't need them, want something new all the time, and swear to god that our lives suck so bad! That man on the street lives in the abandoned store right across the street, if I'm not mistaken. Every bit of food that he gets, he eats in rations to make sure that he's got something for tomorrow just incase no one gives him a bite. Those clothes on his back are good enough until he finds a construction worker's old shirt on the ground or something.

Now let's take a look at someone who may not be homeless. An autistic person is thought to never have the life that we "healthy" people have. They physically look different than other people. Sure they've got a rough life. And sure no one wants to be them. The biggest difference that I ever see though is their smile. They are always happy. They will never be treated like everyone else. You're always going to have people that talk to them like a baby. Would you like it if you were talked to like a baby? You would probably get mad. Then they just sit back and smile. They enjoy life for everything it is. We get pissed off all the time, and have probably had about 10,000 worst days of our life. We don't appreciate life. It's taken for granted.

If being civilized and healthy means always wanting something new, never being satisfied, being in pissy moods, getting in fights, and under appreciating things is "life" then I think that the homeless people and autistic people are getting the better end of the deal.I do not wish to be homeless, or autistic. I want to appreciate the world the same way that they do.

We won't know the concept of living until we are happy.