Hobie Hare tells a beautiful folk story regarding dog that is visited by a wolf. The wolf sees the dog has a collar around his neck and is chained to a tree. The wolf asks, "Hey, my brother, what's with the collar and chain?" "Well, I have a master who treats me kindly, he gives me a couple of meals each day and every now and again, he rubs my belly. I also have a warm place to sleep at night. And, my Master looks out for me."
The wolf then says goodbye to the dog and thinks to himself, "poor guy, he truly believes he has it good. I eat well, overall. But I have no chains around my neck. I come and go as my body and mind pleases. And, yes, I have my obligations to the pack, but, hey we are a team. Poor Lad, he labors for hours on end rounding up sheep, his tongue hanging out, panting and then going up to what he calls "master" with tail wagging! I've seen him do it! And for what? A few morsels of food? I don't think so. Poor guy thinks he has it made. I think he's in prison."
Such is the lot of us dogs living under the thumb of the politicians and corporations that throw bits of scrapple our way for slaving for several hours a day. The same corporations overcharge us for their "goods" as underpay us for our labor.
Is this story about dogs? Or is it also about us? Could we imagine and create a world where we are free of corporations and top-down rule. Can we begin seeing ourselves as participants on this planet and not the Kings/Queens of it? Dare we stop begging for our food?
Let's think of this in terms of an explanation of the Genesis Story of the Fall, told in the current Christian Bible. In that story, Adam and Eve bite into an apple and suddenly see that they are naked and become ashamed. Due to this judgmental attitude they took towards their body, they were cursed by God and were made to toil in hard labor both in working for their food but also in painful labor of having a child.
In many of my past articles, I bring forth the idea that evolution occurs from the inside out. In like fashion, I agree with interpretations about this story as entailing a movement away from hunting / gathering cultures and into agriculture and modern day consumer cultures. "I owe my soul to the company store," isn't just a lyric for coal miners, but for all of us. How many hours per day do most of us toil? How many of us are comfortable walking naked down the street? Even if you say, "hey, I'm a nudist, I'm beyond all that." To that I would question, "And if a policeman saw you walking down the street nude, what would he do?"
My bet is you would be arrested.
Thus the story goes that Adam, the Man, controls Eve. It's more than control of women. It's about top-down hierarchal control that includes labor classes and those living in poverty or of certain racial, ethnic and religious categories.
Are there hierarchies in Nature? Yes, to some degree. Yet, overall, Nature works systemically. We may consider the lion as the "King of the Jungle." Yet, a small microscopic germ could bring that King down.
Nature is more systemic than top-down. Everything serves and is served by everything else. That should include us!
Hobie Hare is a Nature Connection Mentor and life coach who helps people create greater productivity, peace, and a more positive mindset through consistent, deeper connection with the natural world, as well as with their own life nature.
Hobie states, "The key for me for embodying and expressing my own unique wild nature has been deep, consistent nature connection, no matter where I am, or how busy or stressful life can become at times."
Through Hobie's company, Your Life Nature, he helps busy clients move from frustrated and struggling, to experiencing more peaceful, passionate and purposeful lives. Hobie uses a four-step nature connection process that helps them connect with the natural world and create a powerful, personalized roadmap to life. Hobie also guides people on tours of national parks and other wild places, and is an avid outdoor and nature photographer. He has lived and worked in Australia, Thailand, Japan and Costa Rica, and traveled extensively in China, Southeast Asia and western North America.
Prior to serving as a Nature Connection Mentor, life coach and guide, Hobie worked as a Yellowstone National Park interpretive ranger, Yellowstone Association Institute naturalist guide, and an international and outdoor educator. He, his family and his business, Your Life Nature, all call Missoula, Montana home. Hobie's website is http://www.yourlifenature.com. There you can find his gorgeous nature photographs that can help reconnect you to Mother Nature and your rightful dignity in the grand pattern of all things.
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