Please feed the animals

I was in big trouble when I came home today.

Last night as I crammed a Cadbury Fruit-and-Nut bar into my gaping pie-hole, a tasty morsel of chocolate fell from the wrapper onto the table. Now it's customary in the Strate household to scan the dining area with a ultra-violet light so as to detect any leftover crumbs, crums which become an open invitation to unwanted guests. But since this sliver au chocolat somehow lodged under my laptop, it escaped our searchbeams. (It's a definite flaw in the system...) By morning Kaddi woke to find ant-a-palooza taking place on our kitchen table. There was even an ant Jimi Hendrix playing the Thai national anthem...before lighting his guitar on fire and smashing it. It was my unbelievable good fortune that I was not only already at the library, but I had also forgot my cel phone.

I keep telling Kaddi it's not my fault. I have to respect Thai tradition and culture.

Laregly due to their Buddhist ethic, Thais have a very different relationship to insects and animals than we Judeo-Christians. There are ants crawling up the wall at most retaurants I frequent, along with cats wandering through. If you're up-country it's not unheard of to see a free-range chicken strutting about between the tables as you walk in, and then see that same chicken twenty minutes later sleeping with the fish-sauce on a bed of sticky rice. Usually, when I walk into the 7-11 near the archives, you have to step over a dog who's fallen asleep on the welcome mat. A westerner might think this is no place for a mangy dog and be tempted to kick it out of the way or possibly stomp it into the ground, but this would violate the sensibilities of most Thais. I can remember investigators who use to be offended when we missionaries would stomp coackroaches or beetles. Many Thais believe in reincarnation, and so that beetle could have been their grandfather (in which case I would tell them he's better off now.) Properly caring for animals builds spiritual merit, which can be cashed in at any tollboth on the road to nirvana. The Buddhist principle of kindness towards animals (until you're ready to eat them), also establishes a different type of boundary between man and beast.

It has also spawned an entire section of the Thai economy that is devoted to collecting merit through kindness towards animals. At the Thewet pier in Bangkok where I get off the river taxi, you can purchase a large bag of stale bread for about twenty baht. Entire schools of carp swim just off the banks waiting to be fed by the Buddhist faithful. In front of the archives there are legions of pigeons who grow fat and multiply on the offerings of library employees. At the markets you can often find a large tub full of turtles, which are not waiting for someone to make them into turtle soup, although Meg seems convinced otherwise. People make a business out of trapping turtles, then selling them to kind-hearted people who are looking to build merit by taking the turtle back to the river and releasing it...sometimes into the waiting net of a turtle-trapper, no doubt.

This policy produces exactly the type of results one might expect. At the library it's hardly worth sitting down to enjoy the shade because there is pigeon excrement all over the benches, and the sky is constantly full over pigeons - each one a potential dive-bomber floating just over your head. At the pier, you will want to stay away from the water's edge, since fat carp fighting over bread produces all sorts of splashing and you don't want to go home smelling of Chao Phrya. And yet, don't we Christians also believe it is better to suffer these earthly tribulations in order to lay up treasures in heaven?

So when Kaddi is (rightfully) fuming about having to wipe up ants and re-mop the kitchen floor, I just remind her of all the merit we've gained by feeding so many of God's creatures.

Skype-out.


A Side-note:

Those of you interested in the avant-garde should visit:

Snow Show

...a new internet video produced by Giggle Lane productions in Madison, WI. It features unorthodox directing and a revolutionary editing technique. The filmmakers juxtapose the serene settings of a Wisconsin winter wonderland with some shocking footage of urban performers, one of whom appears to be injured.