Letter From Steve

Steve sent me a letter in the mail. I don't think I have ever received a letter from Steve before (well, apart from the 2 years I was in the United States Navy, when we shared letters and phone-calls on a somewhat consistent basis). To say I was shocked to receive a letter from Steve would be an understatement. I immediately feared the worst. Before I even opened up the letter to see what was in it I called Steve's house.

He answered. 'Whew!' I thought. His voice even sounded like he was in a good mood.

'What's up Deej?'

'I just got your letter in the mail.'

'Did you read it?'

'Hell no! As soon as I saw who it was from I called your house to see if you were still...

'Aw come on Deej. Give me more credit than that!!'

'Well, can you blame me? How the hell was I supposed to know. I immediately assumed the worst. I figured it was your last will and testament.'

'You should know me better than that. I told you I wasn't going to enact any of the cliches of suicide. I am way too much of an egotist for that. When I go it is going to be 'special?'


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Our conversation lightened up from that point on. It was the first in some time that I remember joking with Steve, He commented on the fact that he felt relieved and lighter as he had come to some realizations because of what I had been sharing on my blog at Zaadz. He even apologized for putting me in such a tough position as a friend. He went so far as to say he wouldn't want to be in my shoes---that if I were coming to him with the same stuff he wouldn't know quite how to deal with his best-friend telling him he had no desire to stick around any longer.

'Just don't take it personally Deej,' he told me. 'When this all goes down I want you to know I value and appreciate our friendship no matter what. I won't judge you for what you do or don't say. Some of that shit you have been writing is tough-stuff, and I can see why you would think I was manipulating you emotionally by intimating my own imminent exit. This shit ain't easy. I still don't quite have it worked out yet how I am going to pull this off..... so why should I expect you to know what to say to me. Again, I don't expect you to beg and plead and argue with me..... and if you do.... then I don't expect you not too either!'

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Steve's letter (excerpted with his permission) contains a more explicit rationale for why he is set on taking the route he says he is as committed to---just as committed as the Dalai Lama is committed to his vow of celibacy (good one Steve!).

'I want people to question the supposed superiority of the human race. This notion that we are privileged and blessed above all other creatures has always seemed questionable at best, and a total fabrication at worst. I just have never seen myself as above and beyond the fray; like the way most humans have come to exercise their right to demand the near-infinite numbers of killings for the sake of not just their needs.... but their desires. That is not a way of life that I buy into! And never will!

"I don't think I should ask untold numbers of other creatures to die just so that I might live... and live more abundantly. It seems a crock to me. I mean, why should I not be a sacrifice for other creatures Deej? Why should we all not be a sacrifice for the sake of another creature's abundance and health? Why should I not be a meal for the starving Wolf or the near-extinct Jaguar? Why? Wouldn't it be better to give myself for the sake of diversity' (Steve's italics)? Doesn't that make more moral and ethical sense to you: that if I am a proponent of a diverse world then I as a human-being will choose to exit the World-Stage so that other creatures are not extinguished through my daily need to consume.... through my daily need to desire.... through my daily need to impose my will on the natural world around me.

"Think about it Deej. The world is not experiencing a shortage of human-beings.... yet there is and are shortages (ongoing extinctions and eliminations for centuries now) of other creatures that make this-world the diverse playground of the Gods that it has been, was, and always has the potential to be. It is just that humans are usurping that diversity and homogenizing the Planet. That is what Globalization is: Globalization is the Homogenization of a once diverse diorama.

"It is the collapse of possibility at the ontological level of being Deej. Less diverse ontologies Dave.... not more.... that's what Globalization offers. Just mark my words."

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