The Cruelty of the Bonsai
By Michael Boyajian
My wife Jeri and I were at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden many years ago with friends who introduced us to a woman who appeared to be a matriarch of sorts to the gardens. She inquired of all those present if whether we agreed that the practice of Bonsai upon trees was a form of cruelty.
I paused for a moment and then said yes it was cruel and against nature to keep trees from reaching high into the sky just to satisfy man’s need to create art and control nature. I then pondered further along this line of thought and wondered whether it was cruel to prune a houseplant, roses or even a fruit tree.
Jeri took it a step further because she no longer eats beef, pork, squid, and lobster considering these animals to be intelligent. We eat chicken and turkey not considering their intelligence just because that is all that is left to eat other than fish, fruit and vegetables. But when I sit in my yard watching the song birds I begin to wonder about eating chicken and turkey as well. Jeri even tried to count how many chickens she has eaten in her life time. I mean crows are intelligent and they are birds.
Now I stopped fishing after talking to Shelly Walden of WBAI realizing that fish feel pain when the hook goes through their lips. I once sat in an electronics store watching a documentary about squid that made me realize they might be intelligent too. And I am reconsidering my love of lobster after watching the film Julie Julia. So all in all our appetites are quite cruel.
But what if we ate just fruits and vegetables? Don’t we feel sorrow when we chop down a tree? I usually say a Native American prayer when this happens. Many consider the great Sequoias to be intelligent organisms worthy of saving from lumbermen.
So should we stop eating all together ending our rule on Earth as we starve to death? Or is there some kind of Gaia thing working out there were we continue on after death and that is ok and it’s alright to eat to survive. I don’t know but I do know that I am getting kind of picky in my eating habits.
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