Edgar’s Mission Passport
Jenga
Jenga
Sheep
11th July 2022
Getting into mischief
Zooming around on three legs
Amethyst
Certified true likeness
Jenga’s story

Building a Kinder World

Updated July 11, 2022

We had no idea, when we let the impish lamb we have named Jenga into our barn and our hearts, what a mischievous, yet endearing, mite he would be. Although that he had managed to break his hind leg at just one day old was a glaring clue.

However, as his broken leg was cast and put back in place, we began to trace the pieces of his past and gleaned that this break may not have been of his making. His loving mumma, alas, had been savagely set upon, so cruelly so that it was to claim her life. As, no doubt, the terrified wee Jenga fled to save his.

With kindness in the form of a dear horse standing guard over him, caressing him with their love and their tongue, tiny Jenga was found.

And from there a veritable cascade of kindness has followed. Sweet-tasting formula, lots of lap cuddles (until he told us no more), ever-vigilant eyes to stop him chewing what little lambs shouldn’t, and the company of sweet Amethyst – all daily now find him.

And in doing so we find pause for thought for the lot of precious baby lambs. For removing them, and their kind, from the very animal protection legislation they so rightly deserve has not only made their lot in this world unstable, but so too our compassion and kindness.

That we as a society can love lambs, whilst at the same time delight in the taste of lamb chops, speaks of an urgent need to build a kinder world for all.

A world in which cognitive dissonance does not blind us to the suffering of other beings simply because we have found a “higher” use for them, nor exempt us from our culpability for the cruelty inflicted upon them simply because of the form they have taken.

And a closing word.

Piece by piece, we have taken so much away from the animals of this world – their habitats, their harmonious existences, their relationships with their buddies and their babies, even their ability to live lives free from our tinkering in their genetics through selective breeding for traits that meet our wants and needs – and then, ultimately, we take their lives.

Yet if putting little Jenga’s body and world together, along with cleaning up after the many calamities he joyously causes, has taught us anything, it is that a kinder world begins with each and every one of us. It begins with our everyday mindful thoughts, courteous actions and kind deeds.

Thank you, wise Jenga, for this teaching. Now perhaps hold off with those calamities for a bit please!