Like Stones Or Flowers
“They are as they are, like stones or flowers or stars in the sky.”
“They [animals] may be terrible sometimes, but they’re much more right than men.”
“How do you mean—right?”
“Well, look at an animal, a cat, a dog, or a bird, or one of those beautiful great beasts in the zoo, a puma or a giraffe. You can’t help seeing that all of them are right. They’re never in any embarrassment. They always know what to do and how to behave themselves. They don’t flatter and they don’t intrude. They don’t pretend. They are as they are, like stones or flowers or stars in the sky. Don’t you agree?”
I did.
“Animals are sad as a rule,” she went on. “And when a man is sad—I don’t mean because he has a toothache or has lost some money, but because he sees, for once in a way, how it all is with life and everything, and is sad in earnest—he always looks a little like an animal.
—Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse p. 114
I do not care for any animals at present. I envy family and friends who do. A palpable disinterested kindness is displayed by a dog or a cat that has adapted to its owners presence and care. This is delightful to behold and a pleasure to experience if one is privileged to “pet” the animal.
This is true of “less” animate aspects of Nature too. Whenever I visit my hometown I try to go for a short hike along the banks of the Eno River. There is a outcropping of rock that is suitable for sitting and observation of the river. The river, turtles on the opposite bank, trees, wild flowers are just as they are, with no hint of discord, the “out of time and place” that I have felt often,
This is instructive whenever I pause to notice. Yesterday while doing chores in the backyard I paused to notice the mature blossoms on the apple tree. They are past their prime, having done their job of attracting pollinators, still magnificent in their decline. I took a picture with the iphone.
Nature is just as it should be.
