My two cents
I've been seeing this little message appearing on our sidewalks for a while now.
Don't Eat
Animals
Life : Life
666
What is the author trying to tell us here? I'm going to make a bunch of theories up on its meaning.
The first section of the message reads clearly – Don't Eat Animals.
A straightforward directive, it seems. While not as polite as other messages with the same sentiment - for example - those who preface this with the entreaty “please” as in “Please don't eat the animals” as can be seen on these nifty tee shirts. While on the subject of nifty tees please allow me to go out on a tangent – if you scroll down on that page there's the less-catchy but somehow more arresting sentiment “Beef – it's what's rotting in your colon.” available in a “sleek women's spaghetti strap tank style”. But I digress.
I'm assuming that the author of this sidewalk missive is quite genuine in their desire to prevent the entire Toronto populace from eating animals in any form. On to the next statement.
Life : Life
There's always the possibility that this is only a mistake in punctuation and that the graffiti artist was actually intending to write Life=Life in which case, again, this would be a supporting statement for the first section of the message. Don't Eat Animals, for Life=Life (bluntly stated: would you eat your granny? No? Then don't eat a cow's granny either.)
However, this is not what is written. What is written is Life : Life – which could be chapter and verse of some unknown book (although that would be a particularly confusing categorization choice – “Turn to the book of life, chapter life, verse life.”)
Or, perhaps the author is using the colon as a mathematical phrase, as in the ratio of life to life. Wikipedia defines ratio as “ a dimensionless, or unitless, quantity denoting an amount or magnitude of one quantity relative to another.” So I suppose that one life is to another, although because they are words as opposed to numerical figures I'm not sure how many lives there are in relation to the other set. Or perhaps because they are using the singular of the word the ratio in this particular hypothesis is 1 life : 1 life. So, in essence, there are two lives making up the whole. Perhaps this is a message that two lives existing in the same unit are what makes someone whole? Like, me and my cat? Or, a dog and his flea? Or a couple of lovebirds?
Is that what true life is all about? Perhaps this is acutally the mathematical number that answers the question of life?
I suspect that this is not the case: as evidenced by the third and final section of this message: 666.
The “Number of the Beast as this is often referred to in Judeo-Christian circles, is a bit of a confusing closing for someone who seems to be very concerned about our dietary habits.
Contrary to popular belief, the number 666 is not specifically in reference to the “devil” although this (as well as a lot of other Book of Revelations references) has been adopted by your modern-day Satanic worshipper as a sign of their club. Part of the set of preferred satanist trappings.
So what are they saying? Is this a reference to one of the more common passages of Revelations (13:18) which reads (King James version – because older English always sounds cooler & more mysterious) “ Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”
Is the author trying to lay claim to the title of the Anti-Christ? If so, don't you think he'd be a little more subtle than signing their messages with their numerical calling card? After all, I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who claimed that if the ANTICHRIST is advocating it, it MUST be cool. And, most importantly, what the heck does that have to do with not eating meat, anyway? Would the Anti-Christ really go out on a limb for furred or feathered or fishified folks? Is vegetarianism a symbol of the endtimes?
Perhaps this is a subversive message: our author is trying to get you to think that the Anti-Christ (or modern Satanists who don't discern) are in favour of not eating animals. So, conversely, if you aren't specifically pro-evil, that you should really look into eating meat more often. Perhaps even meat as a side-dish to your meat: just to be sure.
Food for thought (with no lives lost).