The question was, "What is worth saving?"
Compassion is worth saving, for myself, for others, for the small and large lives all around. When I think of the exhortation to preserve life, not to kill, I am confronted daily with what that means. Does that mean the ants that are already appearing by the back door, making their trails to the kitchen where there are crumbs, drips of honey, errant bits of onion and broccoli from dinner. They like honey best, always looking for sugar. I am too, always seeking sweetness among the troubles of a life.
Ants have a queen somewhere. I envision her on a tiny antish throne, her loyal, inexhaustible subjects working tirelessly and selflessly to bring her the fruits of their industry. Do ants have a soul? The theological pundits would probably say not. But what do they know. The engine of an ant, the spark that animates them also animates us. I'm not sure about the soul thing? Does having a soul put us on a hierarchy of importance? To whom?I recently heard a talk about the father, son and holy ghost. The holy ghost mystifies me, always has. Then there's the triple goddess, the three faces of women, the triple jewel and so on.
But back to the recommendation to not take life. This winter my house has hosted a plethora of tiny winged bugs. I couldn't figure out their generation. What was the point of origination? Not the compost bucket. Not a dead critter the cat brought in. (Reminds me of the dead robin under my bed but that's a story for another time.) These wee beings were on the window sills, on the bathroom mirror, by the stove. And they were fragile. I could take out a legion of them with one swipe of my sponge.
Here's the dilemma. I am taking life, their life. They may have families, a culture (music, literature?), a purpose in the grand wed of life. And are they less important than polar bears, or orcas, or trees? Do I let them be, to live and die as we all do, as we all must?
6 comments:
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” A quote from 'Animal Farm' by George Orwell explaining disparities that exist in society.
Think of it this way, those bugs want to leave their bug life and become something else.
I reckon you did them a favor.
I guess you can always shoo them outside.
I am sure that there are some people in Florida who do not kill insects or even certain reptiles but I don't personally know any of them.
This is truly a conundrum- do we have the right to take a life? Any life?
Here's one way to look at it- if you disturb an ant bed, an entire working community of them with a queen underground and yes, probably a culture, maybe not literature, they will swarm and bite anything that disturbs them. If they could, I have no doubt they would kill a human being. And then eat their flesh. This is the way of ants.
So if they come into my house (my bed?) do I not have the right to kill some?
I don't know. I do try to escort out any critter that appears lost. That just seems like courtesy.
"escort out any critter that appears lost." That's been my go-to with all manner of spiders, crickets, flies, bees and so forth. As for ants and these flying thingys, I will consider all alternatives to execution. XX
Many years ago, I stayed at a Buddhist retreat in the South of France and the communal wash rooms were inundated by ants. I had just returned from living in Africa where ants could (and did) attack and seriously injure small children and were swiftly killed with a variety of chemical sprays on a daily basis.
And now in this beautiful castle in France, I tiptoed around the ants in the shower rooms in despair, trying to figure out what to do and even thought about leaving early when a young Tibetan nun walked in with a broom, deftly swept the ants off and outside, rinsed the entire surface with soapy water and walked out again.
Sabine! Beautiful.
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