Green - 11/30/22

    Gary Snyder's Grace had readers consider gratitude and a restraint on doing harm. The idea that one must harm to live is one many wrestle with, some better than others. In simply existing, our shelters harm trees, our infrastructure harms habitats and tears up the earth, in drinking and purifying water we further damage habitats and cause drought. Our eating obviously causes harm as we must kill the organism to eat it, and even traversing the world we must inevitably step upon a plant or insect at some point. We may try to live a life of "non-harming" but eventually water this idea down to causing no unnecessary harm.

    The idea of necessary and unnecessary harm is an interesting one as those of us writing these posts are lucky enough to be able to go their entire lives without considering what harm we may cause, even unintentionally. Some such as the Eskimo have rigorous teachings of mindfulness and gratitude, so that necessary harm is mitigated. This gratitude exists in other cultures that pray before eating, or try and shop locally so as to lessen harm in areas of the world they may never see. Despite this, a lot of the attempts to lessen unnecessary harm are divided by class. It may harm the farmers being forced to grow wheat year round on little money, but what other choice does the poor family have but to buy cheap bread? In attempts to cause less harm in some places, harm inevitably falls upon others.