Welcome to SWIVL

SWIVL to be at Animal Rights Conference

Dr. Kathleen Wishnick will represent SWIVL at the Animal Rights (AR) Conference 2010, the world's largest and oldest animal rights gathering.  The Conference will take place in Washington D.C., July 15-19^th.  AR 2010 is the animal rights movement's annual national conference.  No external contributions to SWIVL were used to support Dr Wishnick’s attendance at the AR Conference.

Animal Rights 2010 is a forum for sharing experience, giving information, reporting on progress, discussing what works, networking, learning new strategies, training, and education.  The Conference brings together a diverse set of individuals and organizations concerned about ending the oppression of animals.  Wishnick is specifically interested in finding out about volunteer recruitment and intern programs, fundraising strategies, and the latest in farmed and companion animal facilities and equipment.

Your Contributions Provide Shelter from the Arizona Sun

Lila and Katie have a new shelter thanks to the generous contributions of SWIVL supporters.   Constructed by local builders, SWIVL works with teachers, parents, and community members to develop strong relationships driven by a mutual respect for all sentient beings.  All tax deductible contributions go directly to SWIVL services and programs.  According to SWIVL Co- Founder, Dr. Kathleen Wishnick, It did not take long for these two sisters to find their new shelter – free from the Arizona desert sun.  Wishnick, who rescued Lila and Katie in California and drove them back to Arizona, is grateful to the people that made this shelter possible.  

Lila and Katie are two of the lucky ones.  They are loved and most of all respected.  It is estimated that 90% of all pigs, like Lila and Katie, spend their lives in factory farms. Lila and Katie, like their brothers and sisters everywhere, are highly social, affectionate and intelligent creatures, and suffer both physically and emotionally when they are confined in narrow cages where they cannot even turn around.

Many pigs become crazy with boredom and develop vices like mouthing, and nervous ticks; others are driven to fighting and cannibalism because of their frustration.   Factory farm pigs never see daylight until they are shipped for slaughter. Dust, dirt and toxic gases from the pigs' waste create an unsanitary environment that encourages the onset of a number of diseases and illnesses, including pneumonia, cholera, dysentery and trichinosis. 

Please make a tax deductible contribution to help us save and protect more companion and farmed animals.  SWIVL desperately needs to build shelters, including water and sanitary facilities, in order to rescue and protect other animals from the harsh Arizona summer.

July Book of the Month – “Hope for the Flowers” by Trina Paulus

Don’t let the cover fool you.  There is more philosophy, common sense, and optimism in this tiny book than you'll find in a year’s worth of CNN, MSNBC, and the New York Times combined.  Hope for the Flowers describes a world of potential and possibilities where responsibility, self-reliance, and independence fuels life and life experiences. There are no entitlements, handouts or victims in this book.  Click here for a link to Trina's personal web site to find out more about Hope for the Flowers, other work that Trina and her team are doing, and most important   .   .   .   hope.   Hope for the Flowers should be read by every child – no every adult.

 

A Serious Man: Finding Purpose & Meaning in a World with No Answers

For the month of July 2010, SWIVL recommend the film, A Serious Man.  A Serious Man tells the story about one person’s search for answers to existential questions about the purpose of life and its meaning.  In many ways the film it is a philosophical and theological wrestling match where history intersects with the future to determine the present.

A Serious Man is a modern day story of the biblical figure, Noah.  For Noah, storm clouds are on the horizon. A funnel cloud threatens to return creation to chaos. Apparently this is a fitting punishment for a society bathed in violence and bloodshed. We all know that Noah hearkens to God’s commands; he builds an ark and helps animals enter two by two. But who is Noah before the flood? What is the young Noah like?

In his book, Sages and Dreamers, Elie Wiesel, recipient, paints a picture of Noah as a character who leaves much to be desired. He never acts, he only reacts. He never aspires to grandeur; he is mired in routine. To paraphrase Jean Paul Sartre, he took great events and reduced them to small circumstances.

However, when the storm hits, Noah is all action. Ignoring the calamity around him, he builds an ark. Noah is responsible for his family; he cares for the animals and is committed to life. This is Noah at his best. He is selfless, devoted, and tireless.

A Serious Man reminds us that though we may kick and scream, though we may protest or try to hide, there are times when despite our best effort, we cannot stop or change the future. In those instances, rather than holding back the flood, we must use our energy to find a new sense of purpose – to respond to problems when seemingly no solution exists. 

This is the lesson that the main character in A Serious Man must learn.  Although life may be disorienting, cruel, and indifferent, we must still be responsible, self-reliant and resilient.  Life is not necessarily finding answers to our problems. It’s about living with them. In the words of poet Ranier Maria Rilke: Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves … Perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way to the answer. 

Moving from theory to practice, the 1946 book, Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl chronicles his experiences as a inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding a reason to live. According to Frankl, We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. 

We can learn a lot about purpose and meaning from Wiesel and Frankl: compassion, sympathy, and care.  We can also learn about purpose and meaning from the film, A Serious Man.  Perhaps, more importantly, however, we can unlearn much of what we think we know.