Nature’s Intentions

My aunt Polly sent me The Philosopher and the Wolf by Mark Rowlands in which Mark tells the story of living with a wolf for eleven years. Apart from the fact that he discusses this as a profound experience,  as all people who have loved anything that is non-human will concur, he writes about how he began to see things through the wolf’s eyes and though those thoughts have lessened as he has become a father and husband none-the-less the architecture of his thoughts will retain some aspects of the wolf’s teachings.

But what I have found fascinating is the argument he had with animal rights thinkers when he asked them if they fully understood what nature intends? For the niches into which humanity has found animals of all kinds are niches in the natural world that animals have all evolved into and the intention of nature is the evolution, not the destination. The places we inhabit are those most conducive to our survival but if situations change, so will animals.

There is of course a purity about letting nature do her thing without human intervention but as human intervention exists seeing yourself as ‘being’ with a wolf is not to deny the wolf its nature, but to evolve with it. This is a very powerful idea and though he doesn’t take away all objections to interfering because we can, he does make a valid point both to the intention of nature and to the depth of our own intentions to animals.

If we remember we are clever apes, the relationship is a mutually instructive one.