We all want to achieve the animal in us. When we inhibit this part of ourselves, this beastly half of our soul, and dominate our actions and thoughts with the human, conscious part, the caged underbelly growls. Our subconscious minds build up urges that will inevitably come out in often unhealthy ways. I am an Animist and Existentialist, but I think my advice holds for anyone, regardless of what you believe, and it is this: accept the animal in you. Accept the strangeness of inhabiting your unique set of bones and tissues. Accept the inert savagery of your heart, and accept that savagery, that innate wildness, in others. We share this planet with an odd array of creatures - our equals, our brothers - who all experience unique lives that we can never share. They are trapped in their own consciousness, their own bodies, and we in ours. So we are faced with a playing field of interactions, both with each other and with the rest of the animal kingdom, and, of course, with ourselves. There are no rules to guide us except those of nature. I do not believe in a god that made a set of rules or shapes events in any certain order. You do not have to do anything in order to live forever. Just recognize that we all hunger for life and for safety, and remember that all beings are struggling for their place in this absurd network of life as much as you are. Let them live. Like His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, I believe that Compassion is the only necessary doctrine of a secular future, a future that we are rapidly moving into. 

It is impossible to experience life as a salmon or a wolf. And maybe that is what we all long for: to step outside our bodies into ultimate freedom. Into a new world, or at least a completely new perception of it. We are so dumbfounded at the rest of the animal kingdom, and in our bewilderment we put them in cages, study them, kill them off and play with them in our homes because we struggle to accept our commonality, our likeness, in their strange forms, so different and yet so similar to ours. On some level, I think we all long for liberation, or simply to let ourselves be a part of the animals we see. We can start by freeing ourselves from society’s gender norms; tendency towards discrimination, racism and rejection of ‘others’; and shaming of sexuality. We are born into bodies made for sex, violence and utility. We can create or destroy; we can kill or save. I urge you to do your best - you will not do it all the time, but do your best - to create, love, save and accept for the sole reason that the spark of life is universal. Need is universal. We are born into the world and yet we need the world to keep on living. Let them live, and let yourself live. Of course, you must be safe - it is a mad world out there. Be smart - animals are often vicious and selfish,  and when they feel hurt, scared or weak they have a tendency to bite. Love them, and let them love you. They are, after all, just bones and tissue, nothing to be afraid of. 

I believe that, as surely as that red muscle beats beneath your rib cage, there is a spirit, a life force, held within the shell of your body. Science may one day learn to separate that special something from a body and synthesize it in a test tube, and then the great mystery of life will be solved. In fact, it may happen very soon. But that makes it no less wondrous. To be anything at all is a miracle above all miracles. Understanding life gives us no less reason to marvel at it. Never lose this wonder. Try not to become jaded by cruelty, for it is just our nature. Regardless if you believe that we formed, cell by cell, from a primordial soup or that some great entity pushed those first cells into being or that we crawled from the Holy Mountain from the world below us, we have stepped out into the sun. I wish you well on your journey.