A friend recently asked me if animals have Souls.
As a prelude to my answer, let me introduce you to Kingston P. Kong (the “P” stands for Pawzak), whom my godson had originally given the “Kong” moniker.
I had the pleasure of Kong’s being my companion and often-times roommate for 15 of his 17 years and I learned more about having an independent temperament from this creature than from any human in my life.
While I toiled in Manhattan and elsewhere during the week, Kong roamed the hills of northwestern Connecticut, fending for himself and becoming a veritable legend among the citizens, who would report sightings back to me, always with, “It’s no problem. We love having him around, but thought you should know where he’s been.”
“The Boy Wonder,” as I dubbed him, was an indomitable force of nature, who touched the hearts of everyone, friends and strangers alike.
I never cried as hard as the day I had to bury him. And, I honor his memory. In me, I hope something of his Spirit lives on.
Kong, like any animal, insect, tree, plant, mountain or wind had a unique vibrational energy driven by instinct…a Spirit…with which I and any human could connect. However, this Spirit had a marked time limit, whereas I and every human being are driven not only by instinct, but by a higher form of consciousness and may transcend this particular time to return to life, again. And, that is because we have more than our transient Spirit. We, also, have Soul.
My Transhumanist friends believe humanity is not more elevated than animals or elements of nature. And, that is true in terms of every being deserving to be honored in the Now.
New Zealand is in the forefront of this realization, granting “personhood” to rivers and mountains. Obviously, elements of nature have longer life cycles than any particular human. So, certainly, their Spirits have the right to be recognized, i.e., honored.
But, we, who have the ability to remember and reflect, to do this honoring, are beings whose purpose is to ascend to higher levels of consciousness by returning to life under a new sex, race, location, society, era…due to our Soul essence.
A noted herbalist taught me a lesson with the statement, “Everything is something else’s food.”
Due to my blood type, as well as the fact I’m the grandson of a butcher, I had never been a great prospect for becoming a strict vegetarian. However, this statement gave me the understanding that, like the cave dwellers, who honored their hunts with paintings and whose ancestors might, now, be more likely to receive blue ribbons for vegetables at county fairs, I can and should bless my meals and honor both the animals and plants on which my body survives.
So, whatever one’s choice of diet and whatever things in nature one utilizes in daily life, all creatures and creations deserve to be acknowledged by being honored, just as, ultimately, one’s Spirit deserves to be honored, when this life passes.
Moreover, as human beings, it behooves us to, also, honor the knowledge of our eventual return in, hopefully, an elevated state of understanding and a sense of destiny.
It’s the “getting there”…to being able to come to this understanding and acknowledgement that is the difficult part for most of us.
It reminds me of the line in Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town, when the young female lead Emily asks the Stage Manager if people appreciate the wonder of life while they’re living it and he responds, ”Saints and poets…, maybe.”
To that I’ll add, “…plus those lucky enough to have known Kingston P. Kong.”