Category: Journal Entries

I recall earlier in 2015 watching the news over the controversy of a man who hunted and killed a lion in Zimbabwe. You may recall it, Cecil the lion. The man lured the lion out of its sanctuary (protected land) with the scent of another animal to legal hunting grounds to make the kill legal.

My first thought when hearing this news was “Excellent, the guy found a clever method to get his prey. he deserves the kill.” But then I heard that the remains of Cecil were found beheaded and left rotting in the sun. At that news I was confused for a few seconds. You see, I assumed that the man was hunting lion that day. I had no idea that he was out looking to murder lion that day.

Hunting is what a person does for survival. For food, shelter, and/or security. Obviously this person had no need for any of these things as he only took the head. What good is the head (rhetorical)? Then why did he do it? Hmmmm. The answer is that he did it for sport, you see. He did it because he gets a charge, a rush out of taking the life of an animal. The thrill of the hunt. The adrenaline rush of exerting ones power over another. And the more ferocious the prey, the greater the rush and reward. So basically this person has a desire to kill. So what is to stop this person from killing a human being? Ahhhh the fear of consequence. In our world there is consequence to taking another human life. There is law. It is this fear and this fear alone that separates this person from people like: Jack the Ripper, Charles Manson, Son of Sam, etc. From a morale standpoint there is no difference between this person and a serial killer.

Or perhaps we are supposed to believe that this person places smaller value on animal life as compared to human life. Then I would be curious as to what grounds, what basis is this value system created. Where does he draw the line on what kind of life is expendable, and what life is valuable? On strength, or intelligence level perhaps. When you are the top of the power chain it is easy to draw that line without any solid basis. But what if we were no longer at the top of that power chain? What if an alien species came to earth to live among us that was stronger and more intelligent than us. According to this persons logic this new species would be perfectly within their rights to hunt and slaughter all humans just for amusement. After all our level of intelligence and strength is no different than that of a deer from their vantage point.

Just because other animals of this planet are not a sophisticated as we are, doesn’t mean that their lives are any less valuable.

I think my point is clear by now. The man is a murderer, plain and simple. The only difference between him and a serial killer is that he is smart enough to work within the confines of the laws laid down. If the fear of consequence is the only thing that keeps us from doing immoral acts, then we will never evolve as a species.

Thoughts, ideas, comments?

For 2016, rather than suggesting that we rid ourselves of clutter (hopefully we have done that already). I will suggest that we instead focus on what we wish to add to our lives, what we wish to gain, what we wish to accomplish. Let us focus on something new that could bring value to our lives. Perhaps there is a passion we have always wanted to pursue. Perhaps we have taken our current passion/s as far as it/they can go, or as far as we’d like them to go, and have an urge to go down a new path. Either way it is time to sit down, re-evaluate our lives and priorities, and set some new goals.

Think. Think hard. Take the time over the next couple of weeks to sit down without distraction, and re-prioritize keeping in mind adding in some new passion into life. Keep a notebook and pen/pencil to write it down as we go. These goals need not be big goals, but they definitely need to take us outside our comfort zone. We have no growth as people staying in our comfort zone.

 

Can’t think of any? How about one or more of these:

 

– Decrease our use of social media, and instead use that time to engage in outdoor activities where you can meet new people, get involved in healthy and exciting activities. Meetup.com is great for this.

– Pursue a new hobby.

– Learn some new skills. Most community colleges offer credit and credit free courses on very interesting stuff. Example: our local college here offers a credit free course on sailing. As in boat sailing. How cool is that!?! Even if we only find a course we mildly like, DO IT! You just never know how a passion may develop.

– Vacation (of the destination variety). I do not mean doing the same trip to Florida (or whatever beach destination) that we do every year. I mean something a little more exotic. Something outside of your language range. Something that requires weeks of preparation to learn customs and such, before we even leave the country. If we are in the US, then go visit Thailand for a couple of weeks. If we are in Thailand, then go to NY for a couple of weeks. Something like that. Completely out of our comfort zone. This is an excellent opportunity for growth.

– Get involved in our community. Adopt a Highway, Habitat for Humanity, ASPCA, American Cancer Society. Contact the local United Way office and ask how we can help. Not only charity events, but community building, and celebratory events. See if our local county fair could use an extra hand. Likelihood is that there are local agricultural organizations that could use extra help. All these things not only help our community, but give us tremendous opportunity for growth. Not to mention the opportunity for social networking. Real social networking (not digital).

 

There is a reason why I suggested these particular goals. It’s what they all have in common. They get us OUT. not just OUT of our comfort zone, but OUT of the house. I have seen too much in the past couple of years with people staying in their homes with the TV on and not really doing anything but taking in all the bad news. If it is not the ads influencing us, it’s the political debates, the media coverage of violence (terrorist and otherwise). Mostly lies. We are taking in all this garbage information, and it gets us down. Even the truthful information is garbage information mainly because there is nothing we can do about it from our home. Knowledge without action is knowledge wasted. The best we can do is go out into the world and be the best people we can be. Get involved in something, and be a positive influence to others.

Well whataya know. Setting and pursuing good positive goals is both the solution to our new years resolution, and to a better world as a whole. Hm!

Ok people, it’s time for that post-holiday purging.

What I mean is: No doubt we have acquired a whole bunch of new things for Christmas. Hopefully we like and could use all of the things we have acquired. The only problem is that we now have more stuff. Much of which are probably not adding any real value to our life because we have too much of it. When this happens, we can do what I do. For everything new that comes into the home, something else has got to go out.

Whether we sell, donate, or trash these things, they gotta go.  In all likelihood the majority of the items we acquired for the holiday season are replacement items anyway. New clothes replace old clothes, Xbox One replaces Xbox 360, The iPad replaces the nook tablet. More often times than not, the new items we get satisfy a need (or want) better than something else we have been using to satisfy that need up until now. So getting rid of the old item should be easy.

The only exceptions to these type of gifts that I am aware of, are the gift of experiences, or the gift of things that satisfy an entirely new (or potentially new) need/want; new tools to pursue a potential new passion (Side note: Those are often the best kind of gift). But as an adult, most of the gifts we get are tools for living that easily replace tools we already have: socks, ties, shirts, shoes, jackets, appliances, tech upgrades, etc.