The Very Saddest Sound
“The very saddest sound in all my memory was burned into my awareness at age five on my uncle’s dairy farm in Wisconsin. A cow had given birth to a beautiful male calf. The mother was allowed to nurse her calf but for a single night. On the second day after birth, my uncle took the calf from the mother and placed him in the veal pen in the barn – only ten yards away, in plain view of the mother. The mother cow could see her infant, smell him, hear him, but could not touch him, comfort him, or nurse him. The heartrending bellows that she poured forth – minute after minute, hour after hour, for five long days – were excruciating to listen to. They are the most poignant and painful auditory memories I carry in my brain.” — Dr. Michael Klaper
We destroy the relationships between mother and child and our own social bonds as families are deteriorating with each passing year. The more we become desensitized towards the suffering of others the more we suffer similar fates.
Agreed. Fortunately, I believe the opposite is true as well: the more we care about the well-being of others (nonhumans included) the stronger our own relationships become – to one another, to ourselves and to the world around us.