Slow Havamal: 21

The 21st verse reminds us that the cows in the field have enough sense to stop eating and head back to the barn at some point, but an unwise man cannot fathom his appetite.

The beasts of the field have enough sense to stop when they’ve had enough. Obesity doesn’t seem to be an issue in wild animals, even when their food is plentiful. Why, then, do men consume to their own detriment? The chief difference between humans and most animals as I see it is our mental complexity. We have the capacity to think in abstractions, which open up new worlds of possibility. Animals act on sensory feedback, and varying degrees of mental activity that tend to prioritize the sensory experience, and in many cases, are solely reliant on it. Few animals have higher reasoning capacity—maybe dolphins and whales, maybe elephants, but not many others. ( Read more... )