What does it matter?
Some time ago, 
halophoenix posted the following koan:
The entire universe is the single eye of a monk. Where will you go to defecate? ~ Hsueh-Feng
That koan is a central theme to how I raise my children.
I am a spider-killing, meat-eating, air-conditioning-using defecating monster. I know this. But I do try to appreciate some of the consequence of my actions, and that's what I want to pass on to my kids.
When we use the AC, in the car or the house, I try to let the kids know that it's making the rest of the place hotter. (Later, I'll get them to understand that even if they left the refrigerator door open in the kitchen, the net effect will be to warm up the kitchen.) So we don't use the AC when it's simply hot, but when the heat affects our well being. Because we're doing the world our share of injustice if we cool ourselves down at their expense.
When I kill things, I try to explain to my kids where those things do us a service. (Ants aerate the ground. Spiders eat flies. What do wasps do?) So it makes me sad that the ones I kill have strayed from their path and put my family at risk of harm. The only spiders I kill are in my children's range of play in the house. Every time we walk, we find these things where they belong, and we're sure to talk about them. My kids are not shy to touch bugs and return them from the street or sidewalk to the garden.
We sometimes buy food from the local Chinese butcher, with whole or half pig and ducks hanging from hooks. We've bought duck and watched the butcher split the skull, and chop the body into inch-wide segments cutting the bone to let the yummy marrow be exposed. I tell them how their uncle fights for the gizzard, his favorite part. They understand that these are the same ducks we see in the pond. When we eat them, they've died, and they're no more.
Our charity of choice is the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Partly because they're local and they're fun. Partly because it's imperative for us to know which fish are fished beyond the point of sustainability. So we can eat as many of them as quickly as we can, before they're gone. Just kidding.
I won't tell my kids not to kill, turn on the AC, or eat meat. But I hope they do understand the ripple effect we have on the world. When they decide to leave the spider, to take it outside, or to kill it, that they have a sense for what the consequences are.
There are those who brazenly defecate in the monk's eye without concern, and those who walk funny because they won't. I think I'm somewhere between the two.
I am a spider-killing, meat-eating, air-conditioning-using defecating monster. I know this. But I do try to appreciate some of the consequence of my actions, and that's what I want to pass on to my kids.
When we use the AC, in the car or the house, I try to let the kids know that it's making the rest of the place hotter. (Later, I'll get them to understand that even if they left the refrigerator door open in the kitchen, the net effect will be to warm up the kitchen.) So we don't use the AC when it's simply hot, but when the heat affects our well being. Because we're doing the world our share of injustice if we cool ourselves down at their expense.
When I kill things, I try to explain to my kids where those things do us a service. (Ants aerate the ground. Spiders eat flies. What do wasps do?) So it makes me sad that the ones I kill have strayed from their path and put my family at risk of harm. The only spiders I kill are in my children's range of play in the house. Every time we walk, we find these things where they belong, and we're sure to talk about them. My kids are not shy to touch bugs and return them from the street or sidewalk to the garden.
We sometimes buy food from the local Chinese butcher, with whole or half pig and ducks hanging from hooks. We've bought duck and watched the butcher split the skull, and chop the body into inch-wide segments cutting the bone to let the yummy marrow be exposed. I tell them how their uncle fights for the gizzard, his favorite part. They understand that these are the same ducks we see in the pond. When we eat them, they've died, and they're no more.
Our charity of choice is the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Partly because they're local and they're fun. Partly because it's imperative for us to know which fish are fished beyond the point of sustainability. So we can eat as many of them as quickly as we can, before they're gone. Just kidding.
I won't tell my kids not to kill, turn on the AC, or eat meat. But I hope they do understand the ripple effect we have on the world. When they decide to leave the spider, to take it outside, or to kill it, that they have a sense for what the consequences are.
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