Killing in the name of annoyance

Tonight I watched as two cats mercilessly taunted and battered a huge mouse that was in the house. At first I was stoked, I mean more excited than I was for the first football game of the year, but as the torture continued I began to feel remorse for the poor little mouse that was pretty much done for. If it was a quick and easy kill I could chalk it up to nature, but the cats just kept toying with the animal and I began to question their instincts.

This leads to the questioning of my own instincts and also those of others. Having grown up on a self sustaining beef farm, I learned at an early age the utilitarian benefits of animals. Our pets (the cows) were kept to provide my family with nourishment. Honestly, we named our cows after family members and friends whose birthdays landed closest to birth of our baby cows. That didn't deter us from butchering them when the time was right, and keeping them in the freezer until they were needed. That doesn't mean we didn't care for and about our animals. It makes the relationship sound even weirder, but we would play with the cows. When they were young they would snort and charge at us, but we learned how to grab them and spin them to the ground, where they would get up, snort stomp and charge again. It is a lot like the relationship between my brother and I.

I bring this up because these animals were treated very well and given the best of accommodations. We truly loved our animals, yet when the time came we killed them and put them in the freezer in order to provide sustenance to our family. To a lot of people this outrageous and cruel, but I know that these animals are treated better, and therefore have a better quality mean than most any farm in the country.

So that brings me to my next point.

What is life, and at what point is it ok to extinguish? A lot of vegetarians and even a few vegans I know hate mosquitoes. They slap the shit out of a bug that is biting them without a second thought. I don't mean to say that I don't do the same thing, in fact if I knew of a nest of baby biting bugs I would kill them faster than you can say st...  I would napalm that colony like a politician in the 70's.

It takes me back to the simpler more barbaric times of my youth when it was perfectly acceptable to burn ants with a magnifying glass. If fact, it was called science. In my learned adulthood I question such practices. Although I am still a carnivore, I have reduced my carne intake significantly due to spices, and recipes that have fooled me into thinking I am satisfied. A good trick for meat-consumers to be satisfied by a vegetarian dish, is to make it just a little more spicy than the consumer is used too. Then put dill pickles on the top to even it out. It will be hard for the meat eater to finish because of the spice, but because there is no meat in it they will want to finish it in order to complain that they are still hungry, or will not finish it because of some other excuse, like gas.

So with that in mind I still wonder what is more in-humane? Is it worse to eat baby cows, (veal) or baby carrots (baby carrots)? Is the taking of a plant life less inhumane that the taking of an animal life? Why? They both have cells that grow, they both reproduce and neither one of them speak English. This is just the beginning. What about baby bok Choy?  And other produce with baby in the name. Why do their lives get to be shortened due to deliciousness, as opposed to organisms that make noise and have motor skills?

The crazy thing is after I began to read Buddhist texts and to buy into the idea that all life is sacred, I began to realize that it doesn't mention plant life as being sacred. Apparently mobility determines validity. We all know that when you uproot a chloroplast producing, square celled organism it loses its ability to spawn and create more offspring. Even though it can't protest to its demise, does that mean it doesn't deserve to live?  I wish I had more answers than questions, but considering I'm not running for office, I don't think I need to have answers. Especially since no one is paying me to have them. If the vegetable lobbyist want to pay me in order that this blog doesn't get out then I'll take it. I've got six other blogs that I hope will yield me lawsuits soon anyway.

Yes, I beleive in Jesus.

When I say I believe in someone it doesn’t mean that I validate their existence through speech, it means that I trust in them to do what they set out to do and to be who I know they can be. Regardless of whom it is that I believe in.  Do you think that it is more important to believe and say that Jesus existed and died on the cross for our sins, than it is to love and forgive one another as Jesus did? I believe that Jesus experienced all of the great things that are bestowed upon us just for being born human, such as misunderstanding, being hated, being loved and being human, but he didn’t succumb to greed, jealousy, and control issues that we are plagued with to this day. The way he lived his life is not human, and thusly is how we should all strive to live. We should forgive our oppressors because we can never fully understand why they oppress, just like we can never fully understand any other person’s motivations for anything. Because life is so strictly individual there is no actual understanding of another’s burden and the challenge is to love them anyway. I grew up with a small placard that stated and illustrated the phrase “Don’t try to understand me, just love me”, and I have lived every day accordingly. I don’t fit in anywhere. I am too conservative for where I live and too progressive for where I grew up. I am too masculine for most women and too feminine for most men, but that just gives me a greater understanding of the variety God has created in people and also their motivations. I can see when love is not a motivation for progress rather than a tool for control. I don’t think Jesus would turn anyone away from his table, because love doesn’t do such a thing. I struggle with that idea because I don’t understand why Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t celebrate birthdays, I still get a little grossed out by homosexual relationships and I find it hard to forgive child molesters and killers. I am somewhat successful because I know we are brethren and try to love them anyway.

When I say I believe the Bible to be infallible, I mean that I think that anyone, regardless of race, sex or religion who reads it with an open heart and mind, will gain the knowledge that God intended, to treat people with love. I don’t believe a person has to know who begat who in order to fulfill God’s wishes, nor do I believe eating pork or shrimp violate my relationship with God. People have dissected the book and over analyzed each phrase and in doing so have destroyed the overall message. There is a simple metaphor to use in this case and it is that of the frog. In biology class I took a live frog and euthanized it so that I could dissect it and take the individual parts out to study them and understand the system of life, but after I put the cotton ball into the jar I extinguished the life and instead began to study death. I learned that I can easily destroy life, but as soon as I do so, I am no longer studying it. That is the same as taking the Bible one verse at a time, to back up the individual institution. This is how the Bible has been used to control the masses into thinking that what is good for the individual in control, must also be good for the population. I think God is greater than that. I am a teacher and the greatest thing I have come to understand through my few years of experience, is that every child is different, and a successful teacher can teach the same lesson to many different kids using many different methods. I live to serve and I am grateful for the opportunity to do so, but I am not so proud to think that I can, or should do it by myself. That is the power of God.

Man has an incredible ability to justify their actions through any means necessary; in order to serve themselves alone. Jesus never had a Bible to refer to, to show him how to love. I hope this doesn’t come off as me claiming to be the second coming, because I know I have too many faults for this to be even a glimmer of an idea, but I still claim that Love is more important than recognition, and always will. To suggest that God has “wants” is egotistical and lacking of faith. If he is in complete control, as most of our history and literature suggests, then he can command recognition if desired. Instead what I have come to believe is that he would rather us come to a lifestyle of love through learning and sacrifice and in doing so honor his wishes.  The sacrifice he asks of us is not that great, it is just to trust in him and to love everyone, even those you hate. That is what creates a great faith, seeing how forgiveness works and utilizing that to create peace in your own life. Resent and unmet expectations fuel all hatred.  So, if you can change your expectations and love and trust God enough to love the rain that falls in your life and see how it makes your crop grow, then an individual is honoring God, regardless of their language. This is where my argument comes to a head. I believe that we honor the same idea and strive to achieve it, but I still think that people rely too much on words in order to fool the spirit, usually their own. I also think that God has worked in you specifically to fulfill his needs and continues to do so in order for his message to be spread. In my specific case he has taught me differently. If I approached my friends and peers in the same vein that the Word has been given to me, I would lose them instantly.  It means more work for the individual, but that is ok, we have all the time in the world. 

Can I put Heaven in my GPS?

Is there truly only one way into Heaven?

 

I think that there are many people that are living according to the teachings of Jesus, without actually knowing it. I believe there are many Christians who are not. Luckily I also think that God recognizes the difference and being surprisingly not human doesn't really get caught up on things like recognition and names given to him by his own creation. Because God is Love, those things cannot manifest in its true existence. There are many different words for love, and it cannot actually be proven, yet most people believe in it and recognize it when they experience it. The unfortunate thing is when it is absent it is also painfully recognizable. So God has spoken to me and convinced me to act in love the best as I can, through the words and life of Jesus. Forgiveness is another word for true love. How can we believe that God/Love is not greater than language and ego. I mean God confounded the speech to deter them from building the Tower of Babel. But here I am babel-ing on myself.

A smattering of sketches and drawings.

 A picture of Deadpool, that I painted using a tablet and Photoshop.

 My attempt at political humor.

 A portrait of Elston Howard.

 A small detail I did for a cartoon.

 A self portrait using Flash as a drawing tool. (before I learned Illustrator) 

 A rough sketch of Marvel's Gambit.

 A portrait of my Grandpa Enos before going of to WWII

 This is an illustration done for a friends children's book that was never realized.

 A life drawing of my dog.

 This was done in highschool, using Windows Paint. (before I knew what photoshop was)

Just a little color addition using photoshop.                             The original.