Free If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways by Daniel Quinn Page A

live.
    Elaine . No.
    Daniel [ after some thought ]. We haven't actually done anything new here. We always have to get behind people's words to see what's going on in their minds. In this case, what was going on was just some fuzzy thinking. Some fuzzy thinking that sounded good. We brought this to light by substituting different terms for his term, live . We have to be ready to try anything that will help us get behind the words to the ideas that generate the words.
    Elaine . I don't seem to be much good at coming up with things to try.
    Daniel . Well, I'll tell you something. When I started getting questions, back in 1992, each one of them initially flummoxed me. It was only after answering hundreds of them that the techniques I'm showing you became second nature to me. And even now I occasionally get one that stumps me. Not that I don't eventually crack it, but I have to go through the same steps we've been going through here, trying this and trying that until I see the answer.
    Elaine . I guess I can take some consolation from that.
    [ They take a short break. ]
    Daniel . I'd like to get back to a subject we were discussing this morning. We were talking about tip-offs that set my alarms ringing, and I said you've got to keep an ear open for items that come to us from the received wisdom of our culture. For example, any statement that contains the word Nature is suspect — Nature in the sense of that other we see outside the window.
    Elaine . How so?
    Daniel . The received wisdom is that such a thing as Nature exists, that it is a veridical entity out there — as real and substantial as the US Congress or the Roman Catholic Church — enjoying a separate existence from our own. This is the entity people are thinking of when they say that they "love Nature" or would like to be "close to Nature."
    Elaine . Well, there is a whole world of life out there that isn't human.
    Daniel . And have we escaped from it?
    Elaine . Escaped from it?
    Daniel . People will often blame our problems on the fact that we have separated ourselves from Nature, that whole other world of life out there. Haven't you ever encountered this sentiment?
    Elaine . Yes, I guess I have.
    Daniel . So how far away from it are we?
    Elaine . In reality, we're not far away from it at all.
    Daniel . Then what sense does it make to say that it would be nice to be "close" to it? We can't stop being close to it. We're as much a part of that world as crickets or alligators or oak trees.
    Elaine . You need some pretty thick blinders to miss that.
    Daniel . The distinction between "us" and "it" is a cultural construct, and a very old one. It was clearly in place among the Hebrews, who certainly understood that humans belong to an order of being that is entirely separate from the rest of the living community. They knew that God didn't create the world for palm trees or jellyfish, he created it for humans. He doesn't concern himself with the doings of lizards or beetles. He concerns himself with the doings of humans. He didn't promise the dinosaurs a Messiah.
    Elaine . True.
    Daniel . And he didn't send his only-begotten son to save the wildlife and the rain forests.
    Elaine . No.
    Daniel . Considering your religious upbringing, I assume you're familiar with the Great Chain of Being concept.
    Elaine . Yes.
    Daniel . What's at the top of the chain?
    Elaine . God.
    Daniel . And below God?
    Elaine . The angels.
    Daniel . And below the angels?
    Elaine . Humans.
    Daniel . And below humans?
    Elaine . Everything else.
    Daniel . The Great Chain of Being concept is a product of the Middle Ages, but it wasn't left behind during the Renaissance. Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz all wrote about it with complete seriousness. In fact, it's never been left behind, has it? Even people who don't believe in God or angels still perceive Man to be at the top of the chain of life on this planet. He stands apart and above all the rest — the rest being that which during the Age of