Exchange in the park

[urbpan]

As I was walking the dogs back home through the park this morning, I caught up to a group of teenage boys, two of whom were throwing rocks at the ducks in the river. I've encountered this before, and in the past reacted by screaming. I really need to keep my cool more often. As I approached, the boys were tired of their game, and sat on a bench. As I was passing, one boy gestured at my dogs and said

"Yo, thassa half-pit right there, right?"

I replied "They're both full pit. Please don't throw rocks at them, okay?"

Before my superego could get control of the situation, my id insisted on adding,

"Asswipes."

Comments

[turil.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's sort of a common theme in this society of ours to treat anything that isn't in our small circle of "us-ness" as disposable or at least not important. For some folks that circle is very small. For others that circle is about as big as the circumference of the planet. Most people are somewhere in between.

Where do you draw the line for your circle?

[drocera.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm an environmental engineer, so my circle pretty much encompasses the entire earth, and then some. ; )

It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!

[turil.livejournal.com]

Yep!

Though I have to admit that while my own circle extends pretty far outwards, it doesn't extend inside my body far at all. If someone else starts getting a little too close to being inside me (that grain moth larva in my couscous, for example), or me being inside it (that snapping turtle maybe), I'm less likely to think of it as one of us, and more likely to think "Hey, get away from me you, you evil thing!"

I know that lots of people only include individuals with brains, or even only ones with self-awareness in their circles. And I know Dennis Leary only includes cute, furry people in his circle of us-ness. He's got a funny skit about omnivores and how arbitrary it is that we humans will happily eat cows, but would be highly offended to eat, say, otters with their adorable little paws. (The whole, huge routine is here (http://jorgen.nu/ncfc/06_meat.asp) - for the otter part so a search on that page for "otter", it's a little over halfway down.)

Oh, and someone told me that viruses aren't exactly living things. So that may let me off the hook when I take lots of vitamin C when I get the Flu...

Re: It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!

[drocera.livejournal.com]

And ticks. I don't include THEM in my care circle.

I'm with you on the moth larvae in the cous cous bit, too. I feel the same.