Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Honouring the heart


This is a story that tore my heart open. When my friend Susan told me, I sat shocked in disbelief.
I cannot tell you the exact where's and when, but if you go to the link above, there is an explanation in Spanish.
What I do know from Susan, is that at an art exhibition in Costa Rica a dog was deliberately and consciously allowed to starve to death. In the name of 'art'. Apparently the artist saw it as a political statement about the country, or something. I was told he had some children find a dog on the streets. He tied it up in a corner of the gallery. It was left there, as an object to be viewed. It slowly died.
This is abhorrent beyond words. I cannot comprehend any part of this; that cruelty to animals could be accepted by one single person, let alone many.
We know cruelty against animals, women, children, lesbians and gays, 'the enemy' - any one we deem to be 'the other' and therefore OK to victimise - can occur. But somehow in such a public arena, condoned as 'art', takes it to a sickening level. That no-one cut the rope, in the name of humanity.
I invite you to sign the petition. I did. I want my voice to be heard, that the ripple of my breath may become a windstorm of change. For kindness. For thoughtfulness. For compassion. For caring. For a world where there is no place for cruelty. At all.
This is not the only chilling image I have witnessed and shared today. Look at them both. Then please, let each and every one of us make our lives vehicles of change. By practicing kindness to all those around us, large and small - every being. As an act of courage and compassion in a world of tragic decay. It is the gift we can offer to honour those who have suffered and died simply because the world forgets that we share one beating heart.

5 comments:

Stephen Newton said...

Thanks for sharing that story. Any act that negates life can't be called art.

Tia said...

Kunzang, I could barely read through that. There is, for me, an instant knee-jerk desire to turn away from that kind of cruelty because it is too hard to face.

My heart and breath goes out to the suffering souls out there that get tortured in our hands. (I say this as hunting season has started in Montana.) May we find another, more compassionate way to be soon.

Anonymous said...

Kunzang, that is just such a terrible story. I want to sign the petition and tried doing so but I don't know what the 3rd (Ciudad) and 4th (PaAs) lines mean so I can answer the question. Can someone help?? Sonja

kunzang said...

Sonja: Knowing no Spanish, but this worked for me. I put the town I live in in the 3rd line and USA in the 4th. See if that works. Spread the word amongst the artists in Alice!

Anonymous said...

Ciudad = City
Pais = Country

I am comforted that there are over 385,000 signatories so far. This is an outrage beyond imagining; that a human being could be so utterly deluded as to even conceive of this barbarity as art.

Dragpa Gyaltsen (Chuck Tellechea)
Kunzang Palyul Choling