Consider the following carefully. Maybe even write down your response.
A lion is chasing a gazelle in Africa.
-> What are your thoughts and feelings?
Another lion is chasing another gazelle in Africa. The lion captures the gazelle and rips it apart and starts feasting on its flesh.
-> What are your thoughts and feelings?
Another lion is chasing another gazelle in Africa. The gazelle escapes the lion. the lion hasn’t eaten for many days. It is alone. It starves to death.
-> What are your thoughts and feelings?
— — — — — — — -
The question of the lion and gazelle trouble me. I recently confessed to my friend Paul that it has been coming into my mind for years. Often triggered by a negative event in my life. Like a bad memory. I ask him his thoughts about the lion and the gazelle before sharing mine.
I tell him That I’m not sure what I should feel about it, if anything. This is nature. The lion‘s genetics and the larger world has created the situation in which it must kill the gazelle to live. The lion does not feel empathy for itself for being a lion. The gazelle does not feel empathy for itself. The lion does not feel empathy for the gazelle. The gazelle does not feel empathy for the lion. This is the nature of things. Methinks.
At times this question has caused me to have trouble feeling empathy for others, and also for myself. Especially in regards to events that don’t seem particularly uncommon. A friend tells me about their troubles at work. Or with their girlfriend. Often I feel…nothing. Or a desire to fix it. To help. To control. Something goes wrong with my work, I feel…something. Sorry for myself, for a moment. Or a while. But then I remember the lion and the gazelle. I stop feeling, at least in a way I can observe. I think. Maybe I am not adapted to survive. I am going to find out what happens to the lion and the gazelle.
Paul’s answers are very different from mine. I realize I can learn a lot about people by asking them about the lion and the gazelle. Maybe part of the reason I never shared this reoccurring thought with anyone is that I didn’t think there could be any other reaction than the one I had. I tell Paul my thoughts and we discuss.
“Nature is harsh.” Paul concludes. I agree.
But when I think about it later, nature is more than that, isn’t it. Is the chase beautiful? Where does nature stop in terms of enveloping reality? Are humans not part of nature? In many situations, they are not considered part of nature. Because they strive to control their environment? Well so do beavers.
Odd.
