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SCHNABELTIERE


...in general, thank goodness and thanks to van Schnabel, do not rank among the endangered species yet, for fortunately on www.nikolaus-hirschmann.de they meet with the appreciation they require in order to survive.

Schnabeltiere quickly show the readiness to put up with the company of man. This tameness is part of their disposition. And, as is often the case, at the same time part of their doom. Because, shamefully, for many fellow-humans Schnabeltiere are just a walking vegetable (which can be reaped without hesitation) or a subspecies of a tree or front yard decoration – while in truth they have a story to tell to us humans and should therefore be counted among the modern philosophers.

The message of the Schnabeltier is cheerfully simple at first glance: “here I am”.

Concealed behind this, however, – apparent not until the second glance – is the metaphysics of existence itself. Who among us has not yet tried to comprehend himself? And that in vain and repeatedly!

The Schnabeltiere exemplify the answer: “croak, whistle, chirp” – as an expression of liveliness, as an expression of nature absorbed in itself.

A Schnabeltier is what it is and wants to be just what it is. This is its unfathomable secret. And in the non-fathoming of the reasonless lies its wisdom. The “non” is the invisible key to the comprehension of the objecthood. Not that which is, which is comprehensible, is real, but that which flares up as the universe playing with forms, that which makes sense without reason to the duckbills as “you are” and as “you are me, be yourself and you will be me”.

This is the essence of the Schnabeltier, this is its everyday proclamation. You just have to let the random Schnabeltier be appreciated adequately, regard it unostentatiously . ... watching the undemanding Schnabeltier just being there, as a supreme form of meditative encounter with one’s self.

H-J Buchhorn, poultry keeper, Oldsum/Foehr, Germany

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