Human household care extends naturally to plants, animals, and machines alike

Evidence

There were days when I’d get up in the morning and the animals had beaten me to the kitchen. The calico cat yelled from her perch: Feed me! The longhair stood by his bowl silently with an accusing stare. The dog threw herself against my legs with happiness and looked expectant. Feed me! And I did. I dropped handfuls of oatmeal and cranberries into one pot and stirred hot chocolate in another. The girls came downstairs sleepy-eyed and needing that homework paper from last night. Feed me, they said. And I did. I tipped the scraps into the compost bucket so when the next summer’s tomato seedlings say feed me, I can. And when I kiss the girls good-bye at the door, the horses whicker at the fence for their bucket of grain and the chickadees call from their empty seed tray: Feed me me me. Feed me me me. The fern on the windowsill droops its fronds in silent request. When I put the key in the ignition of the car it starts to ping: fill me. Which I do. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 334

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Directly supports the trees-as-infrastructure and reciprocity essays: feeding the tomato seedlings through compost carries the gift-to-gifttoward-unknown-future logic from ch15.
• XREF: Echoes the ‘scape/field of listening’ framing and the eco-justice recognition of all beings as kin requiring response. — connects to: Good mothering expands to caring for all life’s beings as kin — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 329; Incorporating robots can reduce household labor demands. — Joanna Stern, I Am Not a Robot- My Year Using AI to…, 712; Human machines and organizations function as biological adaptations like teeth

Broader Connections

• Incorporating robots can reduce household labor demands. #exemplifies (0.82) — Joanna Stern, I Am Not a Robot- My Year Using AI to…, 712
• Human machines and organizations function as biological adaptations like teeth #expands (0.75)