Monday, July 04, 2005

A tangled web...

You'd have to click on the pic to actually see the web.
So, I'm not necessarily so fond of spiders, although I tolerate them much easier than I did a couple of years ago. But. I LOVE spider webs! I think that they are fascinating in their intricacy and in their art. It amazes me that a little creature could create such beautiful work. I've always wanted to take a picture of a web, and so I did.
Lately, I've been finding that I don't even want to step on spiders anymore. Or even ants.
I went to an educational day a few weeks ago, and one of the speakers was the hospital chaplain. She spoke of different religions and how they affect how we nurse these patients. One of the religions was Jainism, which is one that I really never knew anything about. This religion believes that every living thing has a soul, and living things should not be killed.
I really loved hearing that. I'm not a particularly religious person, but I do believe in spirituality, and the general goodness of ALL religions. And, I believe in having soul.

Of all the religions the chaplain spoke of that day, this one interested me the most. It may not be a big deal...but why do we learn, even as children, that it is ok to kill a harmless ant, or a spider, just because we think it should not be there, or we are afraid.

Maybe, if we learned tolerance as children it would affect us differently in later life. (Because sometimes, I am intolerant of others.)

Perhaps, I shouldn't have stepped on all those ants, and sucked up all those spiders with the vacuum.