In this unusually named video, According a Beautiful Monster, I explain that humans are nature creatures who eat, breathe, and embody their environment. Some consider our existence taking the life of plants and animals to live ourselves to be monstrous, while those with a larger perspective see this “now you see it now you don’t” principal as an essential component to existence. The deeper principle of Nature is always at work: from death comes life. To exist, life must eventually give way to death as mortality plays its role in Nature, unapologetically.

In the monologue I contrast partnership cultures that unite with nature for mutual benefit as opposed to dominator cultures that subdue, control, and conquer life through conflict, separation, and authority.

Western religion and science foster alienation by interpreting nature’s dynamisms as a fallen expression requiring dominion over Nature, atonement for Nature, and salvation from Nature—thus orienting life through threats, in-groups/out-groups, and perpetual conflict. 

True accord comes from accepting nature’s ruthlessness and beauty without needing to fix or forgive it: life is ephemeral, paradoxical, and balanced, not a race to win or problem to solve. Peace arises through self-awareness, acceptance of positive and negative without resistance, and flowing with the now rather than attempting to control it.