My 9 year old grandson will tell you that I am a freak and he may have a point. We hang out together quite often. As a result he has fallen privvy to some of my deeper belief systems and, as I had hoped, has adopted them as his own despite his frustrations.
I do not arbitrarily kill anything. If I am not in danger and if my home is not invaded I do not intentionally kill anything. My grandson has learned this through repetitive admonishments from me sounding much like this: "Boy, do not tear that spider-web down! Is it hurting you? Do you have a way around it?" "Yes, I know it is a spider. The spider is important to our eco-system and, more importantly is alive. The fact that the web so creatively woven is in our way does not give us the right to destroy this small creature's home and, in the process, kill it."
We have had this conversation numerous times over the past two years. Grandson happens upon a live something or other and prepares to smash it, drop kick it or create a new way to destroy it. Grandma steps in exclaiming the sancity of that life and asking what on earth has that creature done to you. Doesn't he understand that life in any form is important? Poor kid must be confused because I do eat meat. I am considering stopping that but not for any militant back to the earth reasons. I just prefer not to send my grandson mixed messages.
Anyway, I never know how much I am impacting that child until something happens to demonstrate it. Several nights ago he and I were walking up to my mother's home. There is a ramp and there are stairs. Spiders frequently weave intricate webs in the area of the steps. Leaving their home undisturbed means walking back out into the driveway and around to the ramp. For a nine year old 100% boy making that change to leave the steps and walk around to the ramp illicits heavy sighs and mumblings with general references about me, about God and how stupid (indiscernible mutterings). On this particular night he jumped out of my car and headed for the steps. He stopped in mid-stride, took one look, spun on his heels and headed for the ramp loudly exclaiming, "Darn spiders!" My heart jumped in a little joy leap. I did not mention the incident to him. A grandma needs to know when to speak and when to be quiet. Inside I was having a small parade of gratitude.
The sanctity of life extends into acts of kindness, respect for older people and people who are disabled. And, well, people.
So hours have passed since I began this post. My husband is in the emergency room. He has a lot of blood in his urine and was in incredible pain when I called 911. The emergency room at our hospital is absolutely packed full of people waiting to be seen. My husband is in the hall on a bed and, last time I went by, was sleeping soundly thanks to modern painkillers. I am babysitting three parrots for my girlfriend. They have set schedules, set procedures, hierarchy...fascinating.
Life is strange. I find myself walking around saying, "Pretty bird!" and "Hey, baby" as if birds were all around. I am eternally grateful that God does not give us the agenda for each day. I would run like blue blazes in the other direction. What the heck are "blue blazes" anyway? I gotta go. A parrot is nibbling on my ear and ready to go to bed. I am talking a distorted form of my version of bird language and it is time to gather myself together for the rest of what will be a long evening. A hearty "Night-Night" to all.
No comments:
Post a Comment