Why bother?
Connie has healed well enough to come home. The bone is looking strong, she no longer needs a heel extension to support the tendons, Mouse and Connie have been out in a pen for several hours each day, able to skip around as foals do. The future is finally looking brighter. Even the surgeon said he was extremely pleased with progress!!
As this stage of Connie's story comes to a close, I can say that, along the way, a few people have asked me why I was bothering. The long term reality is that I am keeping this foal with a high possibility of not being able to ride her. A foal with a likely destiny as a broodmare does not make commercial sense, no matter how sweet she is or how tragic the story. After all, it costs as much to keep a crocked horse as a sound one. I could buy several youngsters for the price of this operation and her care to date.... Their logic seems impeccable.
For me at the point of decision all those weeks ago, it was simple : this little foal, that I had helped come into the world, seemed to want to live. My instinct was that the 'right thing' was to give it a chance, against the odds, carefully considering the potential suffering versus the possibility of living. And somehow I trust that if I do the right thing it will sort itself out in the long term. So far, Connie seems to have taken the opportunity, and that is enough.
But these questions have made me realise the whole issue of our relationship with nature, and how it is driven by money. The core belief seems to be - if it doesn't benefit us directly, why bother...? The complexity of the system, and our implicit interrelation with it, are too often ignored.
It made me think of a couple of quotes that capture this core issue in the whole sustainability agenda, more of which can be found at the end of the sustainable tactics website...
As this stage of Connie's story comes to a close, I can say that, along the way, a few people have asked me why I was bothering. The long term reality is that I am keeping this foal with a high possibility of not being able to ride her. A foal with a likely destiny as a broodmare does not make commercial sense, no matter how sweet she is or how tragic the story. After all, it costs as much to keep a crocked horse as a sound one. I could buy several youngsters for the price of this operation and her care to date.... Their logic seems impeccable.
For me at the point of decision all those weeks ago, it was simple : this little foal, that I had helped come into the world, seemed to want to live. My instinct was that the 'right thing' was to give it a chance, against the odds, carefully considering the potential suffering versus the possibility of living. And somehow I trust that if I do the right thing it will sort itself out in the long term. So far, Connie seems to have taken the opportunity, and that is enough.
But these questions have made me realise the whole issue of our relationship with nature, and how it is driven by money. The core belief seems to be - if it doesn't benefit us directly, why bother...? The complexity of the system, and our implicit interrelation with it, are too often ignored.
It made me think of a couple of quotes that capture this core issue in the whole sustainability agenda, more of which can be found at the end of the sustainable tactics website...
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Only when the last tree is cut, only when the last river is polluted, only when the last fish is caught, will they realise that you can't eat money Native American proverb
posted by Liz | 8/18/2007 10:39:00 PM
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