The Internet can be quite a wonderful thing sometimes, especially when it is not used to promote misery or anger. I wrote this morning about my discomfort with the idea that I could love a chicken, surely not in the way I love Maria or other humans. Human and animal love is different for me I wrote. This prompted a wonderful discussion about the nature, definition and boundaries of love. I should say I have felt the most powerful love for animals – Orson, Rose, Elvis, Simon, Lenore, Izzy, among others. Animals have shaped my worked,  supported and defined my life.

My love for Maria or for my daughter is different. It is, I hope, selfless and without boundary. People talk about their wish for unconditional love, but I believe true love is very conditional. In order to be loved, there are things I feel I must do – be sensitive, listen, compromise. With Maria, I have learned to open up to emotion. Hard for me, but to do otherwise would be to diminish the love we have for one another. She has great love for the animals, and I photograph it all of the time, but it is different from a love’s love, a father’s love, even a friend’s love. Humans make choices. Animals don’t. Humans have consciences. Animals don’t.  Humans can leave and are not, theoretically, dependent. Animals have no choice but to adapt to us, and to reflect our attention and need. Their survival depends on it. And animals are different. Donkeys are different from dogs, dogs are different from cats, all are different from chickens or sheep, at least to me. To love all things equally is noble, but also for me diminishes the idea of individuality, of our being unique, sentient, thinking beings.

I am trouble at the idea that love for a chicken means the same thing as love for Maria. For me, this is not so. Yet I believe love is everywhere, in everything, surely animals. So yes, sure, we can love chickens or dogs or cats. But it is not the same for me. I would be sorry to lose those distinctions. With Valentine’s Day approaching, a fine discussion to have. Come and join if you wish.