"INES" and such...

From Jim: A while back a monk with nothing else to do messed around with some sweet peas or something and now we're stuck with binomial scientific nomenclature-fancy Latin names-for critters. Lineas thought we should sort stuff out and classify it. Kingdoms, and phylums and genus and species and like that. We're an "equine" sanctuary because of that. Otherwise, we'd just have horses, donkeys, hinneys, and mules. We've got some other "ines" here. There's canines, felines, bovines, and caprines-not to be confused with ovines. The thing is, this sorting business is an "us" issue. The critters just accept that they're a part of the web of life. They carry on just fine without a lot of special Latin appellations. Their DNA includes all of the primal stuff that got them here through the ages. Horses know how to be horses and how to make more horses. Left alone, they do a fine job of it. When we mess around with who gets to be sires and dams we end up with all manner of problems. Colorful Appies that go blind from uveitis, Thoroughbreds, running like lightning, on terrible hooves-Secretariat died due to chronic laminitis, giant American Belgians with legs that fail. We choose what we think is wonderful and a bunch of other stuff gets thrown in. If the web of life was like a nylon stocking, we're the snags that cause runs. Doe's that mean I'm opposed to careful breeding programs? No, but I suppose I have a different idea about what "careful" is. Our goats, caprines to the well informed Latin speakers, are Nubian/Alpine crosses and African Pygmy. They are unaware of this, as they think of themselves as people. Our calves/child-steers are from dairy stock. Somewhere, down in the depths of their chromosomes a monstrous forest primeval bull is pawing the ground. Knowing Julian and Banjo, maybe not. The point is, these critters are part of the living stuff on this planet, as we are. Being a "sapient", I guess I should think about that. We're not above all of it, just of a part of it. We have our little linking strand in a great pattern. We fool around with that at our peril. I like sharing this place and time with other living beings. I appreciate their lives as I do my own. This "being alive" thing comes with strings attached. I find that comforting.