I was limited to bed for last couple of days. I was going out of my mind so my husband decided to take me for a walk in the mall yesterday.
As we were walking through one of the stores, my younger daughter wanted to try this fur stole. She loves anything soft. As she was feeling the softness on her face, my older daughter told her that it was made from rabbit's fur. Her face just dropped because she loves animals too, especially the pet rabbit in her classroom. She looked up to me and said "why did they have to kill the poor rabbits to make this"? Before I could respond to her, this sales person tells her that think of it like the rabbits were rescued. The sales person saw a puzzled look on my face so, she went ahead and explained me that this way, she can justify owning a rabbit's fur piece.
As I was walking away from that sales person, my mind was ready to launch a judgmental attack. Just then, I realized that I was wearing a silk shirt. I never gave a second thought to how many silk worms had to die for one shirt, when I bought it. I am a vegetarian because I believe in nonviolence. But recently, one of my nephew had made me realize that if I truly believed in nonviolence then I would be a vegan. He had made me see that I believe in nonviolence, but selectively, because I have no problem using leather, silk and milk products. I have also killed my share of mosquitos and scorpions.
Do we just draw a random line when it comes to what we are comfortable with? Some people choose to risk their lives to save someone else's life, but some people choose to take cover in danger to save themselves. There is no absolute right or wrong. In the end, we choose our actions based on what we can justify to ourselves so our minds are not agitated.
No one can tell you what to believe, you must trust in yourself so that you can find your own way home on the road of life.
As we were walking through one of the stores, my younger daughter wanted to try this fur stole. She loves anything soft. As she was feeling the softness on her face, my older daughter told her that it was made from rabbit's fur. Her face just dropped because she loves animals too, especially the pet rabbit in her classroom. She looked up to me and said "why did they have to kill the poor rabbits to make this"? Before I could respond to her, this sales person tells her that think of it like the rabbits were rescued. The sales person saw a puzzled look on my face so, she went ahead and explained me that this way, she can justify owning a rabbit's fur piece.
As I was walking away from that sales person, my mind was ready to launch a judgmental attack. Just then, I realized that I was wearing a silk shirt. I never gave a second thought to how many silk worms had to die for one shirt, when I bought it. I am a vegetarian because I believe in nonviolence. But recently, one of my nephew had made me realize that if I truly believed in nonviolence then I would be a vegan. He had made me see that I believe in nonviolence, but selectively, because I have no problem using leather, silk and milk products. I have also killed my share of mosquitos and scorpions.
Do we just draw a random line when it comes to what we are comfortable with? Some people choose to risk their lives to save someone else's life, but some people choose to take cover in danger to save themselves. There is no absolute right or wrong. In the end, we choose our actions based on what we can justify to ourselves so our minds are not agitated.
No one can tell you what to believe, you must trust in yourself so that you can find your own way home on the road of life.
So are you comfortable living in hypocrisy? Or rather, are you comfortable morally drawing the line where you draw it?
ReplyDeleteChuck, most of us draw a line somewhere and I am comfortable with using by-products.
ReplyDeleteI figured out why killing misquotes and scorpions may be justified - sure, their life is valuable as well but not more valuable than a human life. There appears to be a sort of a pecking order where human life ranks higher than other creatures or maybe it's just self preservation.
ReplyDeleteI agree there is no absolute right answer. Even being vegan, I don't think a person let termite destroy his/her house.
ReplyDelete