February 2014

A Vegetarian Journal for Quakers and Other People of Faith

The Peaceable Table is intended for the mutual support, education, and inspiration of

 people of faith in the practice of compassionate love for our fellow animals and Peaceful dining

Editor’s Corner Essay:  Divine and Feline Grace

I have always loved cats, and have enjoyed having them in my life for most of my seventy-five years.  They're beautiful and graceful, it's a delight to cuddle them and feel them vibrate, it's interesting to watch their widely varying personalities develop. Two of those I've lived with over the years have helped me become a better seeker of God and lover of my fellow beings, and as it happens, they're both in residence now.

Angelique:  No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

In the summer of 1994 my friend Doris and I stopped by her mother's house for a few words with her.  On her front yard were two scrawny, neglected kittens, a ginger and a tortoiseshell, mewing pathetically.  We offered them some water, but couldn't feed them then.  The ginger let us pick him up, but the tortoiseshell wouldn't allow us near her. They "belonged" to the next door neighbors, who had a long history of failing to feed, alter, or otherwise care for their cats.  Doris' mother, suffering from dementia and not herself, threatened to "kick them into the next county."  I wanted very much to take them both home, but unhappily wasn't in a position to do so then.

As soon as possible I went back, together with my son Richard, taking with us a small doll-bottle of goat's milk.  The ginger kitten, to our sorrow, was gone, but the tortoiseshell was still there.  She fled from us and hid in a bed of rosebushes, from which it took about forty-five minutes to lure her.  While I drove home, Richard cuddled her and fed her the bottle, from which she sucked desperately.  The threats of my friend's mother made me think of the passage in Hebrews, "Do not fail to give hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware."  I named her Angel, which morphed into Angelique.

We knew that an infant so severely neglected would take some time for psychological healing. It took some time all right; now, an old woman of nearly twenty (about ninety in human years), Angelique is still an unhappy orphan.  She has a loud, strident voice and a demanding personality: she wants her (vet-prescribed) baby food, or wants her treat, or wants fresh water in her bowl, or wants grooming and cuddling, and she wants it an hour ago, and who do I think I am to be doing other things first?  Almost every time I enter the bedroom I’m treated to resentful-sounding, sometimes high-decibel miaows.  Much of the time she seems to be tense. and has all her claws out, so that picking her up to give her the desired cuddling is a dangerous enterprise; I've learned to hug her when she’s on the bed without lifting her. If I'm not yet awake when she's ready for attention, she occasionally bursts out with an abrupt, eardrum-breaking Miaow! that slams into me and practically makes me leap up from the bed.

I used to get some relief from my frustration by calling her Mary Musgrove, after the reproachful complainer in Jane Austen's Persuasion, who lost her mother at age nine and never grew up.  But I have stopped that, because I came to realize that Angelique really is an angel in the word's original sense of a messenger of God.  She was sent to help me develop strength and patience, to remember that it is the prickly and difficult one who most needs the Divine compassion which never gives up until it touches and releases the sufferer's Inner Light.  After almost twenty trying years, I really am learning these lessons, a little . . . .

Taliessin:  “Because He [She} First Loved Us”

In the spring of 2008 my spouse Robert and I decided to adopt a kitten from our friends Barbara and Clark, who were taking in pregnant stray cats, supervising the births, and finding homes for most of the kittens.  Studying a picture of the most recent litter of kittens before meeting them, I asked Barbara if anyone had claimed that cute gray one who lay on her back making bunny-paws in the air.  Amazingly, no one had; she was mine.  I named her Pearl, but when she turned out to be a he, the name morphed into Merlin.  Not wanting precious Merlin to be any more frightened or lonely than necessary in his strange new home, I also took one of his litter mates, a slim, rangy, very short-haired tabby with narrow black-and-gray stripes.  (I prefer solid, rounded tabbies with wide stripes and longish hair, but none were available.)  Merlin's add-on brother I named Taliessin, Tali for short.

 In his early years Tali turned out to be a keen hunter, which dampened the faint warm feelings I had for him.  But after a time, I made an effort to avoid letting him see how much I preferred his charming, professional-cute-kitty brother; I took the trouble to cuddle Tali and pretend I loved him.  To my dawning surprise,  he responded as though my "love" were real.  As time went by, he became very affectionate, climbing into my lap when I was reading, or eating, or in contemplative prayer, sometimes extending a paw toward me, favoring me with his quiet purr, and cuddling with me at night.  When I go out to call him, he will come bounding joyfully toward me as though I were the summit of all his desires. He follows me on my walks like a dog, with many side excursions to check out interesting smells.

To my mind, Tali is also an angel, a messenger of God, demonstrating the meaning of Divine Grace:  we are surprised by love we did not ask for or deserve. I used Tali, I offered him a pretense of love--and he responded with genuine love.  I am so grateful.  I love Tali "because he first loved [me]."

And What If . . .

I believe that all animals with whom we interact are messengers from God--an office so exalted that the thought of how millions of them are treated, by people totally ignorant of their mission, is enough to make one shudder. (Kyrie, eleison!) As Shakespeare’s pious Isabella says, “proud man” is “most ignorant of what he’s most assured--his glassy essence, [and] Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven / As make the angels weep.” Perhaps by “glassy essence” she means that in every human’s innermost being, like a mirror or glass ball, there is an image of God.

And what if every animal--at least every “higher” animal--also has that glassy essence from which God shines for those who have eyes to see?  Of course many a beast, like human beings with ”a little brief authority,” will still carry on in an unpleasant way, “an angry ape” pounding his chest, and we must learn to love them anyway--love them sensibly, actively, persistently. But there are other beasts who, like Tali, are very different, and prove capable of loving us before we love them. Many rescued from the horrors of the factory-farm and slaughterhell system, or other situations of terrible abuse, forgive the species that treated them so satanically.  They accept healing, they offer love not only to their caretakers (who deserve it) but to any new person who visits them.  Each such animal is more wonderful than a miracle.  Each is a bearer of divine Grace.

Thanks be to God for His [Her] unutterable Gift!

--Gracia Fay Ellwood

The lead photo is of Tali napping on my chair at the dinner table.  The second is Angelique on her favorite spot, the bed.  The third is my grateful kiss.

Note from Barbara Booth:  Hathor, the mother of Tali & Merlin, was rescued from a storage unit business, where someone abandoned her, most likely because she was pregnant.  She had five male tabby kittens.  One of her babies died the first week.  The rescue agency who gave her to me brought a two day old calico kitten whose mother had died.  When I presented Hathor with this tiny newborn she smelled her, then looked at me as if to say, "I wondered where my fifth baby went!"  She vigorously washed and then nursed the kitten.  To see this little calico thrive among her adopted tabby brothers was an appealing sight.  So I must conclude that Hathor is a gift from God, as well as Tali & Merlin and all other animals.

Unset Gems

“There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth.”--Rumi

“One can scarcely look for the Good Shepherd in factory farms . . . “ --Malcolm Muggeridge, quoted in Franceen Neufeld, Suffering Eyes

“I must interpret the life around me as I interpret the life that is my own.”--Albert Schweitzer, quoted in Karen Borch, Farewell with Love

“. . . .  every effort should be made to stop the wanton and cruel slaughter of animals, which must be destructive to our morals.”--Nikola Tesla

--Contributed by Lorena Mucke

A Glimpse of the Peaceable Kingdom

The Dog and the Fox

Last summer Norwegian nature-photographer Torgeir Berge and his dog friend Tinny, while walking in the woods, met an orphaned fox kit whom Berge named Sniffer.  Although Tinny was very much a companion animal, and Sniffer completely wild, the two animals quickly established a firm friendship, and now meet often. Berge has taken a number of photos of them playing or just enjoying one another’s company. With an author colleague he is preparing a book chronicling this remarkable love story, which they hope will curb the trade in fox fur.  For more pictures, see Friendship

--Contributed by Marjorie Emerson and Karen Borch

NewsNote

King Amendment Dead in the Water!

The notorious King amendment  (that’s not MLK but pro-agribusiness Representative Steve King) to the House Farm Bill, which could have nullified all existing state laws granting animals some protection, as well as human health protection from animal “food” sources, has been dropped from the bill and is officially dead.  Break out the champagne (or grape juice)!  

See  Merciful Demise

--Contributed by Lorena Mucke and Noah Gittell of PCRM

Two New Books for the Animals

Two of our subscribers, Franceen Neufeld and Karen Borch, have recently brought out books about animals.  Franceen’s Suffering Eyes:  A Chronicle of Awakening is the story of her opening her own eyes to the existence of the hell farmed animals endure out of our sight, and at the end, voices the hope we activists must both find and create. It is available from Purposeful Publishing.  See http://www.sufferingeyes.com/ .  Karen’s Farewell with Love:  When You Lose a Beloved Animal, offers ways of honoring the lost friend and finding comfort and healing.  She includes a number of stories inspiring hope and joy. Order it from Rowzbud Publications; see review below.

Recipes

Russian Chick Pea Soup

4 cups filtered water

1 cup cooked chick peas

1 cup cooked kidney beans

1 cup cooked arrozo or barley or rice

1 onion

1 carrot

1 turnip

1/4 small cabbage head, shredded

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1 tomato (optional)

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons shoyu (natural soy sauce)

1 handful parsley, chopped

 Combine water, beans and chickpeas in soup pot, and simmer for 15 -25 minutes. While beans are simmering chop onion, dice the carrot and turnip, shred the cabbage and dice the tomato (optional for people with a nightshade allergy). Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat; add the onion and saute, then add the rest of the vegetables, stirring well after each addition.  Continue to saute for another 5-10 minutes and add the cooked arrozo, barley or rice (or combination), stir in gently and saute for 5 minutes.  Now stir the vegetable and rice mixture into the beans; add more water if needed, and simmer for 25 minutes.  Season with the salt and shoyu, and simmer for 10 minutes more.  Garnish the soup with chopped parsley.

--Angie Cordeiro

The most important part of a winter meal is that it provides warmth.  The increased use of root vegetables and squash, and the reduction of out-of-season fruits and salad greens, will provide the weight and heartiness usually supplied by animal foods in our culture.

Queen of Winter Yam Casserole

2 medium yams

4 parsnips

1 medium onion

1 large clove garlic

2 tablespoons sesame oil (olive or corn oil

can be used)

1/2 teaspoon oregano

2 tablespoons sesame tahini

1 tablespoon shoyu (natural soy sauce)

1/2 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Wash, scrub, and dice the yams and parsnips; chop the onion and mince the garlic.  Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat; add garlic, then the onion, saute for 1 minute.  Stir in the yams and parsnips and continue cooking for 5 minutes; now add the oregano and saute for 2 minutes more.

Combine the tahini, shoyu, and water in a small bowl, blending until a liquid sauce is obtained.  Transfer the vegetables to a lightly oiled 2-quart casserole dish and cover with the sauce. Cover and bake for 35-40 minutes.

--Angie Cordeiro

Book Review: Farewell With Love

Karen Borch, Farewell with Love: When You Lose a Beloved Animal. Albuquerque, NM: Rowzbud Publications, 2013. xvii + 76 pages. $17.95 paperback.  Available through Lulu.com .  Illustrated.

This brief, attractive, and provocative book will appeal to many animals lovers. It breathes a spirit of compassionate caring for both animals and their human companions. Really more a collection of interrelated essays than treatment of a single subject, it provides a many-faceted perspective on the tremendous issue of animal and human relationships.

The work begins, as the title suggests, with the sad experience many of us have been through, the loss of a beloved fellow creature who shared our life. Chapters here include "The Devastating Loss," "Euthanasia: The Subject That Nobody Wants to Talk About," "Dealing with the Finality of Death," and "Do Animals Have Souls?" (On the last, Borch is non-dogmatic, saying that the belief has become commonly-held, and "If this contributes to healing and makes your heart sing, then it is a great comfort.") She then returns to the earth-plane, offering ways of memorializing the companion's life, including family remembrance ceremonies.

The volume then proceeds to an essay on the great Albert Schweitzer's concept of reverence for life and its application. The next section offers "Treasured Animal Tales," such as "The Dog Who Was a Matchmaker," "Maria and the Parrot Who Became a Catholic," "Karen, My Friend," and "The Whale Who Changed the World."

The delightful “Catholic parrot” story tells of a teenager named Maria who finally persuaded her parents to get her a parrot.  Rosanna, as Maria named her much-beloved avian friend, developed a one-word vocabulary; she used it to learned to wake up her human for school in the morning, squawking "Maria, Maria, Maria." One day, frightened by a large dog, the parrot flew off and was not seen again for some time. Maria, heartbroken after a long search, had virtually given up hope when she heard that an African green had showed up at a nearby Catholic convent, astounding the nuns, who believed the appearance was a miracle because the bird kept calling the name of the Blessed Mother, "Maria, Maria, Maria." The teenage Maria, though she missed her feathered companion, generously decided to let Rosanna stay with the nuns to whom she meant so much.

The whale was Keiko, who had been the star of the movie Free Willy, but who later had been sold to the owners of a small aquarium where his needs were neglected and he languished in bad health. But eventually supporters, including innumerable children around the world, raised enough money to free him, and return him to health and to the seas around Iceland from which he had originally come. From there, surprisingly, he swam on his own to Norway, where he became much beloved as he patrolled its fjords -- in order, Borch believes, to shame that nation into giving up its whaling practice.

“My Friend Karen,” a chimp personally known to the author, and who had been used in dreadful experiments, was finally given protected retirement, as this pitiful and heart-stirring account relates.

In all these reflections and narratives we are given wonderful apertures into the complex world of animals and their varied lives among us on our common planet. But that world is not too complex to allow us to focus on the one thing needful, caring compassion.

The book concludes with a substantial and carefully annotated list of books and writings to inspire animal stewardship. This set of resources will be of great value to many workers in the field. Lastly, let us mention Karen Borch's own Internet site, www.blessedbetheanimals.com , which includes her inspiring essay, "We Are Their Only Hope." Karen Borch’s work shows her to be a splendidly devoted worker in the field of compassion for animals. We hope this fine book is only the beginning of what we will receive from her.  --Robert Ellwood

Poetry: William Shakespeare, 1564-1616

Isabella:

 . . . . How would you be,

If He, which is the top of judgment, should

But judge you as you are? O, think on that;

And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Like man new made. . .

 . . . . Merciful Heaven,

Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt

Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak

Than the soft myrtle: But man, proud man,

Dressed in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assured--

His glassy essence--like an angry ape

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven

As make the angels weep.        

--Measure for Measure, Act. II, Scene 2

Isabella pleading with judge Angelo for her brother’s life

Copyright 2014 by Vegetarian Friends.

The Peaceable Table is a project of Quaker Animal Kinship / Animal Kinship Committee of Orange Grove Friends Meeting, Pasadena, California. It is intended to resume the witness of that excellent vehicle of the Friends Vegetarian Society of North America, The Friendly Vegetarian, which appeared quarterly between 1982 and 1995. Following its example, and sometimes borrowing from its treasures, we publish articles for toe-in-the-water vegetarians as well as long-term ones.

We manage on the traditional shoestring budget, with most funds for domain name, server, and advertisements in other periodicals coming out of our own pockets; so we welcome donations either by PayPal or check.

This journal is intended to be interactive; contributions, including illustrations, are invited for the next issue. Deadline for the March issue will be February 25.  Send to graciafay@gmail.com or 14 Krotona Hill, Ojai, CA 93023. We operate primarily online in order to conserve trees and labor, but hard copy is available for interested persons who are not online. The latter are asked, if their funds permit, to donate $12 (USD) per year.

Website: www.vegetarianfriends.net

Editor: Gracia Fay Ellwood

Book and Film Reviewers: Benjamin Urrutia and Robert Ellwood

NewsNotes Reporters:  Lorena Mucke, Marian Hussenbux

Recipe Creatrix: Angie Cordeiro

Technical Architect:  Richard Scott Lancelot Ellwood