1. What are the other animals?

The other animals are the animals we call “animals” so that we do not have to include ourselves.

They are the bodies outside our body, the voices we translate into noise, the lives divided into companions, pests, food, symbols, experiments, entertainment, wildlife.

They are not one “other.”

A cow is not a pig. A pig is not a dog. A dog is not an octopus. An octopus is not a bee. Each one experiences a world that we can only partly imagine.

Perhaps “the other animals” simply means: all the animals who are not human.

Perhaps it also means: everyone we pushed outside the word we.

2. What are the others?

The others are the people, animals, minds and lives we understand only from the outside.

They are those who are not me—but “me” is also one of the others to them.

Sometimes we create the others by drawing a border: human and animal, citizen and foreigner, normal and strange, intelligent and stupid, worthy and disposable.

The others may be different from us.

They may also be us, seen from somewhere else.

3. What is a significant other?

A significant other is usually someone whose life has become closely connected to yours. A partner. Someone loved.

But the phrase is strange and beautiful.

A significant other is an other who has become significant.

Someone whose happiness changes yours.

Whose suffering reaches you.

Whose absence occupies space.

Whose existence asks something from you.

Maybe love is not the elimination of otherness. Maybe it is learning that another being does not need to become you in order to matter.

And perhaps the real question is not why one other becomes significant.

...the far past? Maybe you are dead.

...the recent past? Probably you are busy.

...the present? Honestly, do you care?

...the near future? Wait, are you a bot?

Raccogliere briciole.

Accontentarsi.

E poi chiamarla vita,

solo perché respira ancora.

Guardare gli altri entrare

da porte che per te

restano sempre socchiuse.

Sorridere piano,

per non disturbare il mondo.

E intanto conservare in tasca

un sogno minuscolo,

sporco di polvere,

Meh, when in doubt, I listen to techno and house.

Maybe I only know the black-and-white version of you, the one trapped in a circle on my screen, half ghost, half notification, looking like a memory that learned how to breathe through pixels.

I don’t know why you reply every day, when you say you don’t want to meet.

Maybe loneliness has strange manners.

Maybe distance is safer when it still says goodnight.

Maybe we are both pretending this is nothing, because naming things makes them heavier.

The e-cig hums softly in the room and does not smell.

Almost polite.

Almost invisible.

Unlike my t-shirt, which has apparently decided to remember the whole day for me.

Smoke without smoke, feelings without plans, a conversation without a future, maybe.

Your photo looks like a secret someone forgot to delete.

Soft hair, sharp eyes, a small almost-smile, like you already know the ending and still keep opening the chat.

Maybe this is you.

Maybe it is only a picture.

Maybe it is the version of you that stays, while the real you keeps choosing not to arrive.

And still, every day, there you are.

Not coming closer.

Not the fun kind. Not the "it’s just a movie" kind. The kind where the monster is... still kinda normal.

https://www.dominionmovement.com/watch

You don't have to be vegan to watch it. You just have to be willing to look.

Dansk: Der er undertekster, hvis du har brug for det.

Italiano: Ci sono sottotitoli e versione doppiata, se necessario.

Console or PC?

Feed your dashboard by answering my question, blogger.