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Respect for little things in life can go a long way
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Published: February 26, 2009
My wife saved a stinkbug last night.
We were relaxing in our sitting room when she noticed something crawling across the window sill.
"What's that?" she asked tensely.
"Stinkbug," I said.
"Don't you have something to do downstairs?" she inquired. This is wife-code for "go away so I can kill this bug and not have to listen to you beg for its life."
I told her that, in fact, I had nothing to do downstairs, but I would gladly open this window for her. Taking the hint, she fetched a piece of toilet paper and, with steely eye and resolute jaw, picked up the intruder and assisted it outside through an unhinged corner of the screen. Muttering to herself, she returned to her book and I to mine, secure in the knowledge that another of God's lesser creatures survived contact with humans.
Usually my wife doesn't need a hint to spare a critter's life, though she will teasingly threaten the occasional cricket just to antagonize me. She and I share much the same outlook on wildlife in our home. Spiders in the corners are left alone, partially because they serve as natural exterminators. In fact, at our first house, we even named a spider (Sam) that lived behind our toilet.
We're teaching this same respect for all life to our children. Just because something is ugly, scaly or has intruded where it isn't welcome doesn't mean we should kill it. There are rare exceptions in which we may find ourselves in a true dilemma, but the overriding value of all life can't be overemphasized.
Since our children were infants, we've taught them that all creatures, even bugs and snakes, have families at home, and if they kill something, its family will be sad. This goes far beyond mere insects, though. We believe that if more of us taught our children this lesson, and emphasized compassion for all creatures, the world would have less terrorism and be a much happier place.
As Dr. Albert Schweitzer once wrote, "Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives."
Consider this: would you step on and kill a beautiful butterfly resting on the sidewalk? Most people answer no. But would you squish an ugly, hairy spider resting on this same sidewalk? The distressing presumption is that many people would step on the spider, but not the butterfly.
Why is the life of an "ugly" creature less valuable than that of a "beautiful" one? Were not both created by God? What kind of lesson are we teaching our children if we distribute death based on such subjective judgments? All life is valuable, which is a lesson our children will do well to learn.
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