The Inanimate

1632:

Once we've dropped the animals-are-useful model, and see animals less as things and more as beings, we can then move on to a world of imagination where we see an 'animated soul' in things, not just in humans, not just in animals, but in every thing. By imagining that there’s a soul (or whatever you call it) in every thing, we start to regard everything as sovereign and worthy of respect. At least, worthy enough for us to grant it some of our attention.

One of the most beautiful objects anyone could aspire to own and use is a flute. One can feel elevated by the wonderful flow of sound produced by the flautist playing this musical instrument - an example of the inanimate becoming animate - flute responding to flautist. The object comes alive, not quite like an animal but in another no-less-convincing way. Objects can be beloved because we’re having, what feels like, a relationship with them - our car, our house, a flute or even a well looked-after, well-cleaned mirror.

Take a mirror for example. It responds to me by showing me my face, and that makes a mirror a useful item worthy of being looked after. Or there are other things we get attached to, like a bike. We might imagine that this useful object 'speaks' to us about its one important safety factor, and if we fail to listen to it, if we don’t maintain it properly, the brake cable thins and snaps at the worst possible moment, and we suffer the consequences - of not 'listening'.  

Our attitude towards our inanimate possessions is a template for how we deal with the sentient beings in our care. If we're careless about the things we own, it’s likely we might not be sensitive about the living beings in our care, be they human or non-human.