Sermon     “Interspecies Communication”

The Rev. Rali Weaver

First Church and Parish in Dedham

Unitarian Universalist

10/18/09

I’ve been thinking I should have titled this sermon “Everything I needed to know about talking to you I learned from my Dog Sophia”. If you haven’t met her already Sophia is a magnificent golden retriever that I adopted soon after moving into the parsonage. She is about 4 years old now and is (if I must say so myself) the perfect animal companion. She loves to hang out and she hardly ever complains and she is always happy to see me. From Sophia I have learned to get outside now and then and to go with the flow a bit more and most importantly that all any body wants is love and attention.

I can’t leave out my two cats either, Grady and Agnes. I have had them since they were kittens. They too are nearly four years old. While my cats are a bit more finicky they also teach me to slow down, to notice the smaller things in life.

In truth my pets often act as background to my rather busy life. They hover around me each week as I write and practice my sermons for you and I never give them any credit.

They witness my life in ways that no other living being has or does and yet I rarely acknowledge them publicly.

This is why once a year I believe it is good and right that we take some time to recognize our pets on a Pet Blessing Sunday, Giving us a chance to acknowledge the gifts our animal friends offer us.

I chose the month of October for our Pet blessing Service because October 3^rd is the Feast for St Francis of Assisi and while we do not regularly recognize Saints within our Unitarian Universalist tradition I like to recognize St Francis because he was the first historical figure to draw any philosophical or theological attention to the relationship between humans and animals.

Many of the legends of St. Francis’ illustrate the compassion and love he had for animals. These stories are told and retold in the collection called the “Fioretti" or Little Flowers" which emerged after Francis’ death, And like many stories may be fact and may be fiction but either way offer us insight into some point of human existence that is common to us all. One of the most famous incidents is the story of St. Francis with the birds.

It is told that that, one day, while Francis was traveling with his friends, he happened upon a place in the road where birds filled the trees on either side of him. Francis told his companions to wait for him while he went “to preach to his sisters and brothers the birds". And then it was that drawn by the power and the sweetness of his voice not one of them flew away while he preached:

My sister birds, you owe much to God, and you must always and in everyplace give praise to Him; for He has given you freedom to wing through the sky and He has clothed you... you neither sow nor reap, and God feeds you and gives you rivers and fountains for your thirst, and mountains and valleys for your shelter, and tall trees for your nests. And although you neither know how to spin nor weave, God dresses you and your children, for the Creator loves you greatly and He blesses you abundantly. Therefore... always seek to praise God with your song.

And this explains why the birds do sing such sweet songs.

I love this story because it points to the way that our tone of voice can transform our interactions with others.

Imagine if Frances had approached the birds with a loud and booming voice? How many of them might have stayed from his lecture?

I know from experience with my animals that they will hover near as long as I am quiet but when I make loud noises of any kind, with the vacuum or the hair dryer they are nowhere in sight.

It is also true that if I ask them sweetly with music in my voice my pets will respond almost immediately but on the days that I am cross and irritable they will not follow any suggestion I give them.

This is true for all of creation. Plants are even said to respond positively and negatively to the energies that surround them. And I can even imagine all of you would not be here if I did not take care with the tone and energy I use to present my message each week.

That’s what I mean about everything I learned about talking to you I learned from my Dog Sophia. She will come if I confidently and kindly call her name but if I call in anger or I call too softly she stays away. She is a perfect trainer for a minister. Quite particular about the tone of voice she wants me to use. She teaches children too. If they scream angrily “Sophia, Sophia Come Here!” She ignores them. If they say meekly “Sophia come here” she turns a blind eye. But as soon as they say confidently and with caring “Sophia come” she stops whatever she is doing and comes.

I imagine that not all of us here are pet lovers. Some of us might find ourselves more akin to Robert Frost in our opening poem and wanting to squelch the Minor Bird’s song. And yet even to you I know these laws of the natural world apply.

To begin with even if you don’t have a pet at home you cannot deny that we are all, every day surrounded by animals and are both affected by them and affect them by the tone of our interactions.

My father for instance has never been a pet lover. And yet he sits for hours quietly on his dock in Vermont hoping to see signs of a Blue Heron knowing that Heron will come and stay longer the quieter he can be.

We live in a world of living beings and raising our consciousness to them is an important part of living in harmony with all of creation.

In her book Alex And Me, Irene Pepperberg explores animal intelligence and how a loving relationship can aid interspecies communication. In her book she raises the question that I think is at the center of our conversation today, if animals have a sense of consciousness, what does that say bout our relation to them, and to their relations with us? I think this question is worth our consideration this morning.

If animals have a sense of consciousness, what does that say bout our relation to them, and to their relations with us?

Recently a friend pointed out to me on You Tube a video made by the National Geographic Channel where Elephants are taught to paint. Now some of the videos have Elephants, using their trunk, to paint what can only be described as impressionist works. But one video in particular shows an elephant painting a picture of well an Elephant.

The first time I saw this it surprised me. If an elephant paints a picture of herself, doesn’t that mean the Elephant has a sense of herself? And if she isn’t quite able to make sense of herself (I mean where would you find a mirror large enough for an Elephant to view herself?) then doesn’t this mean that an Elephant has a sense of those around her?

According to Human brain expert, Jill Bolte Taylor our left brain dictates our sense of separate self while where we begin and end and our right brain dictates our connection to all matter-- including each other in other words where we do not begin or end.

If an elephant can paint a picture of a thing at all it must mean that elephant has some brain function. If an elephant can paint a picture of an elephant to me implies that elephant has not just a sense of the other but also a sense of himself. Because what prevented that elephant from painting a picture of his male handler standing right beside him or the easel that the canvass is sitting on right in front of him?

Before I watched the video of Elephants painting on You Tube I did believe that animals had consciousness they are not mechanistic beings without any sense of self, but after watching the video I began to wonder what animal consciousness might have to teach us about ourselves. Or as Irene Pepperberg states I began to wonder what it might mean to be living “in a world populated by thinking, conscious creatures” of all kinds.

It is easy to get caught up in our own lives and to take care of the physical and emotional needs of our pets without ever truly interacting with them. When we pay attention to their consciousness we might awaken to the new ways in which interactions they have with each other might be enhanced and the deeper connections we have with them as a family might be celebrated.

Last week on one of the most beautiful fall days I took some time to walk around Pine Ridge Cemetery here in Dedham. If you haven’t been there I suggest you go sometime, it is just down Bridge Street at the Animal Rescue League of Boston. Pine Ridge Cemetery is the oldest pet cemetery in the United States. In addition to the present-day cemetery Pine Ridge also includes a historical section with burials dating back to the early 1900’s that is well groomed and beautiful to walk in and open to the public from dawn to dusk.

The historic grave stones are quite fascinating to me. Dating as far back as 1902 the stones read things such as “Most Loyal Friend’ and “My Buddy”. These markers reminded me of the deep connections we make to our pets and how important they are in our lives.

The stones reminded me that I won’t have my pets with me forever. Their life spans are so much shorter than my own human one. And it made me start thinking I should spend my time wisely with them. Not miss a moment. Make their moments richer.

As we move forward to our pet blessing this morning I hope we will hold in our hearts all of the animals that bless and have blessed our lives. I invite us to take this day to recommit ourselves to their keeping. Not to silence their song but encourage its sweetness with our own.

May their consciousness bless our sense of what we are doing with our lives and may our increased awareness of them make us better stewards of their care.