Baptiste Morizot has changed the way I look at the world. He has offered a depth to the nuance of my relationships by giving them words and concepts to draw from. He examines in great detail how we relate (in the familial/ancestral sense, and the geopolitical sense) to other life forms with whom we share the planet.

In anxious times we need to hold each other closer, and that motion is still alive when I think of my encounters with the more-than-human. I draw solace and comfort, safety and a sense of resilience when I interact with others beyond my form. But sometimes we forget about these encounters, we forget that we are a part (constituent) and only feel apart (separate).

Using the examples of interspecies communication through strategic deposits of wolf and weasel scat along human trails through a mountain pass, to the ancestral connections and ritual through seasoning our food with salt, Baptiste looks to many varied experiences and ways of being alive to distill an ethic, maybe new, but likely older than we can remember, of being in community with, instead of having dominion over.

I was going to be joined by my firend Julian Fisher for this one, similar to how we discussed Baptiste Morizot’s previous book “On The Animal Trail” a couple of months ago, but as he needed to finish his own work, I was instead joined by American Toads (Anaxyrus americanus), Crack Willow (Salix fragilis), Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) and many others in the field (or at the ephemeral pond rather) to record this reflection on the book. I hope you enjoy it.

To learn more :

Ways of Being Alive @ PolityBooks.com