Tolstoy and the Green Stick
The Green Stick: A Symphonic Fairy Tale With A Vegan Message
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| Tolstoy's grave - the location of the 'green stick'. Photo by me (2010). |
When the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy was a little boy, his brother Nikolai had told him about the legend of the mysterious green stick which had a message engraved in it. That message contained the secret to universal happiness where all people would be free from illness and suffering. Although little Leo never found such stick, the idea of it captivated him throughout his adult life. Today, he is buried in the same location where he believed he may have been able to find that green stick - near the ravine in the forest of his family estate Yasnaya Polyana, south of Moscow.
What could have possibly been written on that stick?
I wrote a musical fairy tale for symphony orchestra based on this legend, literally titled The Green Stick, which contains my interpretation of the secret message which was engraved on that stick. My amazing friend Anastasiya Yakovleva, an art historian from Saint Petersburg, helped me by writing the story which would turn into the narrator's text for this orchestral work.
The work was originally inspired by a short story called The Wolf which Tolstoy had recorded onto a phonograph which he received from Thomas Edison. The Wolf is about a little boy who likes eating chicken and is afraid of wolves. One night he had a dream where he ran into a wolf who questions the boy why he loves birds yet also eats them. When the wolf then calls the boy a 'chicken' and tries to eat him alive, the boy wakes up from his nightmare and decides never to eat animals again.
Here is the original recording of The Wolf in Russian - pretty fascinating to hear what Tolstoy's voice sounded like!
My intention for writing The Green Stick was to share the same message as that in The Wolf. In similar fashion to Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, the work has a narrator, and each character that appears is represented by a specific musical instrument (or a group of instruments) with it's own musical theme.
In the story, the main character who is a kind and brave little boy, goes into the woods to rescue his chicken friends who were taken away from their mother by a wolf. As he wonders through the woods, the boy comes across a mouse who is stuck in a trap. The boy helps release the mouse, and the latter gives him a green stick as a gift of appreciation, telling him that the stick can fulfill one wish.
When the boy finally meets face to face with the wolf and demands that he hands back the chickens, the wolf asks why he should give the chickens to someone who likes eating them (this is where Tolstoy's story The Wolf has been incorporated into the narrative). The boy tries to run away from the wolf who wants to eat him alive, but in the process realises that he is in fact running away from himself - the wolf represents the reflection of his own hypocrisy. He then pulls out the green stick which the mouse had given him, and asks it to help save his chicken friends from the dangerous Wolf and promised never to eat his animal friends ever again. When the green stick hears the boy's request, it flies up into the air, transforms into a pretty little bird and starts singing a beautiful song to which the wolf falls asleep. The boy is then able to safely rescue his chicken friends and reunite them with their mother.
Let's imagine that we found the green stick ourselves - what would the world look like now? How did we create universal happiness? How would we then look back at the world in which we live in right now?
Our current pursuit of false happiness is at the expense of the lives of others. Is it fair to expect ourselves to be 'free from suffering' while causing harm to others? Currently we are killing 56 million land animals annually for food. We are producing more than enough plant foods for all on this planet yet we are feeding them to livestock when around 9 million people die of starvation each year. Moreover, by eating animals we are literally destroying our environment, forgetting that this planet is our home which we share with all other human animals and nonhuman animals.
In the end we suffer ourselves - the consumption of animal flesh and its secretions is associated with numerous health issues. Contrary to popular belief that animal products are necessary for nutrients, the American Dietetic Association states that "appropriately planned...vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases" and are "appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes". In fact, plant-based diets are proving to prevent, reduce the risks of, and even reverse illnesses including cardiovascular disease - the world's No.1 cause of death.
Therefore, if eating animals is not necessary for our health or survival, then killing them for our taste pleasure is immoral. Even if it were necessary for our health, it still does not change the fact that we are causing pain and suffering to innocent, sentient beings. In his essay The First Step Tolstoy discusses morality and animal rights, concluding that abstaining from eating animals is merely evidence that one is honestly seeking to live a morally good life. Although written well over a century ago, it is striking to see how relevant this essay is even today. This makes me wonder whether he was ahead of his time or that the animal rights movement today is not progressing fast enough.
There are many people out there who are biased against veganism - I was once one of them myself. It's easy to fear what we don't know. But once I learnt about the harsh reality of what we are doing to these innocent animals I was faced with only two choices - either deny/ignore the facts and continue supporting the killing of animals, or accept the reality and stop contributing to animal exploitation. It is not our fault for not knowing the truth as every effort is made by the animal harming industries to hide what they do (surely they wouldn't have a problem with being transparent if they actually believed that what they are doing is acceptable). But once we are aware then we have the power to change and the responsibility to act.
If we truly care about justice, fairness and equality, then refusing to participating in animal exploitation, i.e. going vegan, is the absolute minimum we can and must do. If our actions aren't in alignment with our desire to live in a peaceful world, then how can we expect create one? I believe that if we all loved ourselves then we wouldn't feel the need to gain pleasure through the suffering of others. If we truly appreciated this gift called life then we would understand that others value their lives too. We would realise that treating nonhuman animals as our property just because they do not belong to our species group is morally no different from treating other human beings as slaves because of their skin colour.
Veganism itself is not the answer to universal happiness and the end of suffering - it is only the first step which we must take in heading towards the right direction. I dedicate this work to our nonhuman animal friends - may we live together on this Earth in peace and harmony.
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| When the green stick turns into a bird, she sings the 'vegan theme' (played by the piccolo) |
Let's imagine that we found the green stick ourselves - what would the world look like now? How did we create universal happiness? How would we then look back at the world in which we live in right now?
Our current pursuit of false happiness is at the expense of the lives of others. Is it fair to expect ourselves to be 'free from suffering' while causing harm to others? Currently we are killing 56 million land animals annually for food. We are producing more than enough plant foods for all on this planet yet we are feeding them to livestock when around 9 million people die of starvation each year. Moreover, by eating animals we are literally destroying our environment, forgetting that this planet is our home which we share with all other human animals and nonhuman animals.
In the end we suffer ourselves - the consumption of animal flesh and its secretions is associated with numerous health issues. Contrary to popular belief that animal products are necessary for nutrients, the American Dietetic Association states that "appropriately planned...vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases" and are "appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes". In fact, plant-based diets are proving to prevent, reduce the risks of, and even reverse illnesses including cardiovascular disease - the world's No.1 cause of death.
Therefore, if eating animals is not necessary for our health or survival, then killing them for our taste pleasure is immoral. Even if it were necessary for our health, it still does not change the fact that we are causing pain and suffering to innocent, sentient beings. In his essay The First Step Tolstoy discusses morality and animal rights, concluding that abstaining from eating animals is merely evidence that one is honestly seeking to live a morally good life. Although written well over a century ago, it is striking to see how relevant this essay is even today. This makes me wonder whether he was ahead of his time or that the animal rights movement today is not progressing fast enough.
There are many people out there who are biased against veganism - I was once one of them myself. It's easy to fear what we don't know. But once I learnt about the harsh reality of what we are doing to these innocent animals I was faced with only two choices - either deny/ignore the facts and continue supporting the killing of animals, or accept the reality and stop contributing to animal exploitation. It is not our fault for not knowing the truth as every effort is made by the animal harming industries to hide what they do (surely they wouldn't have a problem with being transparent if they actually believed that what they are doing is acceptable). But once we are aware then we have the power to change and the responsibility to act.
If we truly care about justice, fairness and equality, then refusing to participating in animal exploitation, i.e. going vegan, is the absolute minimum we can and must do. If our actions aren't in alignment with our desire to live in a peaceful world, then how can we expect create one? I believe that if we all loved ourselves then we wouldn't feel the need to gain pleasure through the suffering of others. If we truly appreciated this gift called life then we would understand that others value their lives too. We would realise that treating nonhuman animals as our property just because they do not belong to our species group is morally no different from treating other human beings as slaves because of their skin colour.
Veganism itself is not the answer to universal happiness and the end of suffering - it is only the first step which we must take in heading towards the right direction. I dedicate this work to our nonhuman animal friends - may we live together on this Earth in peace and harmony.
