Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.10

A spider is proud when it has caught a fly, and another when he has caught a poor hare, and another when he has taken a little fish in a net, and another when he has taken wild boars, and another when he has taken bears, and another when he has taken Sarmatians.

Are not these robbers, if you examine their opinions?

—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book 10.10 (tr Long)

Marcus Aurelius himself apparently fought battles against the Sarmatians, and I can’t help but wonder what he must have thought about being an emperor, made for power and war, and also being nothing but a man, made for justice and compassion.

Those of us who have killed in battle can surely understand, and those of us spared that burden can only imagine.

Perhaps the spider is only following its own nature when it consumes the fly, but what of the man who kills all sorts of prey? What is his purpose, and what is his intention?

While I was living in Boston, people would be quite shocked and offended at the very prospect of a hunt. It was all a symptom of barbarism, and we looked down our noses at the inhuman practice of the kill. When I moved to the rural South, I saw something very different. It was all an expression of livelihood and culture, and we raised our fists against those who could never wrap their minds around it.

The lines, of course, are not that easily drawn. Whether Yankee or Dixie, the why is more important than the what. Whatever the walk of life, I have met many brutal people, and I have met many caring people. Your race, and background, and environment don’t define it, but your freely chosen character most certainly does.

Have you shot a rabbit, or caught a fish, or taken down a wild boar, or even confronted a bear? I’ve eaten rabbits and fish that I’ve killed, and at that point saw no shame in it; I can’t speak about boars or bears, though I once nearly pissed myself when a black bear came into our camp. Was I mistaken in using and consuming what I had hunted?

Look at what Marcus Aurelius says. Is it the killing that is the problem, or the pride in the killing? Is it about living out of necessity, making use of the gifts of Nature, or is it about vanity, the thrill of power and conquest, posing with trophies and puffing up a fake courage that covers a much deeper weakness?

Lives will end, and one living being will inevitably take the lives of many others, directly or indirectly. I once made a very nice stew from a rabbit I shot, and a good distance shot it was. In contrast, I should also be quite willing to accept it if that big black bear had ripped me to shreds and had me for dinner. Would it have hurt? Of course it would. But the bear wouldn’t have killed me just for fun, like some twisted humans would.

Robbers take what is not theirs by right, and there is the injustice. The black bear would have taken what was his by his nature, and for that there can be no blame.

Written in 1/2009