[October 1998 journal entry]
Animals (on a spectrum from more to less noticeable) and humans (with the same provision and at least from prenatal through early childhood phases) appear to share to some degree such qualities as honesty, trust, simplicity, pleasure over pain, sympathy, forgiveness. Humans gain sufficient reflective capacity to revise, redefine, question these traits. This capacity results in such varying traits as altruism, martyrdom, violence, materialism, prejudices, history/story, friendship, . . . All creatures would ideally be in settings that protect, encourage, facilitate full maturation.
Animals (on a spectrum from more to less noticeable) and humans (with the same provision and at least from prenatal through early childhood phases) appear to share to some degree such qualities as honesty, trust, simplicity, pleasure over pain, sympathy, forgiveness. Humans gain sufficient reflective capacity to revise, redefine, question these traits. This capacity results in such varying traits as altruism, martyrdom, violence, materialism, prejudices, history/story, friendship, . . . All creatures would ideally be in settings that protect, encourage, facilitate full maturation.
