Learning to be the Earth's Companion

My favorite line of Dobie’s piece called “The Mustangs” is the first: “The earth does not think and does not care what people think, but it gives and takes with undeviating justice, and it remembers.”

The significance of this line, to me, is that that earth sees us all as being equal. It does not pick or choose who has greater reason or greater agility and it certainly does not distinguish between man and animal. The earth is frustratingly uncontrollable. No matter how many buildings we construct, how many grounds we cement, or how many living beings we eliminate, the earth will never belong to us.

But what is most powerful about this line is that it does not accuse the earth of anything – it admits that there is “justice” to everything the earth does. It is our responsibility, then, to take what the earth gives us without complaint or resentment.

What seemed so fascinating about the Mustang to me is that, despite its size, it treads far lighter on this earth than we ever will. At a massive 850 pounds, the Mustang Dobie describes seems gentle and free. He, like the earth, cannot be contained.

Mustangs: True Companions of this Earth

Dobie expresses that mustangs, with all their freedom, are true acceptors of this earth:
“The sight of wild horses streaming across the prairies made even the most hardened of professional mustangers regret putting an end to their liberty. The mustang was essentially a prairie animal, like the antelope, and like it would not go into a wooded bottom of a canyon except for water and shelter...He relied upon motion, not covert, for the maintenance of liberty.”
The mustang, unlike man, accepts the earth for what it is. He does not hide under the canyon the way many humans hide in buildings, but instead fearlessly faces the earth. He knows he cannot find freedom in hiding.


These cityscapes have become our landscapes, and exist because of our resistance to be companions with the earth


The notion of the free mustang is as fascinating as it is fearsome. As humans, we seem to want to control the ground we tread on. We want to believe that this world belongs to us – not to the trees, the insects, or the animals that inhabit it. But watching the mustangs, Dobie reveals to us that even the mustangers admire the animal’s inability to be contained. He is a true citizen of this earth.

Dobie writes that “Only the sense of being in place gives natural horse or natural man contentment.” This line is perhaps the most important piece of advice Dobie offers the reader. He suggests that contentment for horses and humans cannot be found in “covert.” On this uncontrollable earth, it is our responsibility to find ourselves “in place” and realize that it is the buildings we construct and the living beings we destroy that makes us “out of place” in a world as free as it is unforgiving.

Becoming an Earthling

I began this class as a human. For me, at the time, being a human meant being a leader of this earth. At the top of the food chain, I saw everything before me as being meant for me. There was no animal, no insect, no other living being that could stand superior to a human. Everything on this earth belonged to us.


I thought I held the world in my hands, never considering that it is the earth that holds us.

Then I saw Earthlings. I was not ready to see the excruciating pain these animals were subject to. Moreoever, I was not ready to feel what I felt when I saw them suffer. I felt ashamed. I felt terrified. I felt I was no longer human.
I resisted these feelings throughout the semester. I tried to forget the cows I saw slaughtered, the chickens that were ruthlessly debeaked, and the circus elephants beaten for the pure pleasure of the "human" audience. But the more I read, the less I could deny their suffering. If I wanted to feel "human" again, I knew I would have to make a change in how I treated animals.
Often, throughout the semester, I have negotiated the line between animal and human. Whether or not the two are the same or are destined to be forever distinguished from one another now seems irrelevant. They will forever be related for the mere fact that they are both living beings on this earth. This fact is undeniable. While the level of consciousness of an animal or the linguistic meaning of the word "animal" itself may be enlightening, the best way a human can learn to appreciate an animal is to learn how to share this earth.
Every leader presented in this course has been described in light of their relationships with animals. In the "Miracle of Purun Bhagat" from the Jungle Books, we know that Purun Bhagat is kind becuase he "had never in his life tasted meat and very seldom eaten even fish"(170). According to Purun Dass, "It was all one...Earth, people, and food were all one"(171). This line, to me, is reminiscent of the definition of "earthling" presented at the beginning of the film, Earthlings. To be an "earthling" is to be a fellow being of this earth. The name makes no distinction between animal, insect, or human -- they are all merely living beings.
Beyond learning what it means to be a human, what this class and perhaps the Jungle Books seeks to express, is how to learn to be a leader.
It seems significant that Kipling offers us perhaps the most compelling vision of a leader in "The White Seal." While we have certainly seen the leadership of humans like Mowgli and Purun Bhagat, the leadership of Kotick may be the most relevant. He is told at the beginning of the story by his own mother that he "'will never be able to stop the killing'"(78). Nevertheless, he adventures through the world fearlessly, determined to find a safe place for the seals. His struggle is perhaps most relevant to ours as humans because the fight to indeed "stop the killing" -- the mass murder of billions upon billions of animals -- often seems hopeless. Just as this "killing" has been so intertwined and accepted within the seal culture, so has the suffering of animals for the human culture.

Maybe if humans were as bold as this white seal, we could all hold our heads this high

If I began this class as a "human" I will leave it as an "Earthling" and a true leader of this earth. Being a leader is not composed of merely being at the top of a food chain. It is composed of both the little tasks such as not eating meat or appreciating the other bengs that surround us and the larger task of fighting against what others deem to be the inevitable. Animal suffering is not necessary -- it only occurs because we have not been lead or have not chosen to lead ourselves down a different path.