Thou Shall Not Kill

34 Replies

Now I bet you are wondering why I am stating the obvious. Sometimes the obvious needs to be pointed out again and again and again. Some people just don’t get it. In modern society we need rules, we need laws to convince people to behave appropriately. How sad is that?  Having laws means that we have a template to punish people when they circumvent what we consider to be correct behaviour. No, I am not going to regale you with a rant about how ridiculous some laws are. No, I’m just going to focus on one that I find perplexing.

Do not kill.

OK, that sounds easy enough, don’t kill.  Our laws in Canada do elucidate the word kill:  no killing of people.  But like every rule there are exceptions.  I once asked people if they had the courage to kill if it was warranted.  If it was to protect others, would you have the strength to take another life?  I don’t know that I do but I hope I could. I hope I would have the strength to protect another even with deadly force. I wouldn’t like it, hopefully. But if the moment ever came . . .

In my life I’ve probably killed thousands, tens of thousands. They just weren’t people. I’ve killed flies, spiders, microbes, bacteria. All these things were living and I ended them. Oh, but I have done so much more! I have killed the mood; I have killed a thought. With malice aforethought I have killed ideas. And I’m not the only one.

We seem to use that word indiscriminately. We have lessened its importance so that it is almost meaningless. We rant about somebody we dislike by saying that we could kill them. We don’t mean actually but are we so desensitized to the word that it is becoming dangerous.? We have video games, movies and even comic books that show various forms of killing and even encourages it. When it happens in real life, are we surprised? Should we be surprised? I don’t know. But I do find it frightening. When did the value of life become so insignificant?

I do not like to kill. Even buggy creatures. For years there has been a spiderweb in one corner of my balcony. As long as they stay in that corner, I will not disturb them. If there is a fly in my apartment I will try and coerce it to leave.  I do not like insects but I understand that they have a purpose in our world. They are part of the chain that makes up the whole.  But if you are a mosquito . . . you and your brethren, you will die. Bwaha ha ha!

 

 

34 thoughts on “Thou Shall Not Kill”

  1. Dan Antion

    I have to agree with where you drew the line, Pam. We relocate spiders, and we do our best to show other flying things the way to the door. Mosquitos? Nope.

    As for the heavier, more important question, I haven’t given much thought to my use of the word ‘kill’ but I have tried to eliminate the word ‘hate’ from my lexicon. The expression, “I hate when that happens” was a convenient quip to many situations. I’ve tried to eliminate it. Hate (and killing) shouldn’t be trivialized.

    Liked by 4 people

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    2. quiall Post author

      The word I removed from my vocabulary was can’t. I really dislike that word. I don’t use hate or kill often except what I’m talking about beets. I hate beets!

      Liked by 1 person

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  3. Murphy’s Law

    I’m with you and Dan on the buggies. I will go out of my way not to step on an ant, but mosquitoes don’t stand a chance with me. Other flying thingies get shown the door, or window, and seem to understand I’m giving them an escape route.

    Cartoons and Fairy Tales are big promoters of killing. You don’t like somebody? Just give ’em a poison apple or push them off a cliff. Killing has been glamorized and some people soak it up like a sponge.

    Senseless killings have become an everyday occurrence, especially here in the US. Instead of wanting to sing or dance or run a company or country better than anyone else, we have people whose only goal is to kill “more” than were killed in the last mass shooting that was televised 24/7 for days.
    God help us all.
    Ginger

    Liked by 1 person

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  5. Dale

    I’m with you on skeeters. Oh, and I’m sorry, but Japanese beetles – they don’t belong here and are noshing away on my roses – I have no pity for them. Spiders get shown the door gently as do flies.
    Language plays such an important role as Dan has said. What we say matters.
    As per, you have caused us to reflect. 🙂 Happy Sunday!

    Liked by 1 person

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  7. John W. Howell

    I’m with you on the mosquitoes but as I remember where a fly has been no doubt walking before getting into my house it gets terminated as well. All others get a pass. Hate and kill are two words we could do without. Thanks for the thoughtful post, Pamela.

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  8. rangewriter

    Great and provocative post. Indeed, the idea that some deaths/murders are sanctioned is often blown out of proportion. I’m sure that most mass murderers are driven by a notion that they are protecting others. (Society may question their logic, but too often not until after the fact.)

    I’m trying to be better toward the pesky little creatures that plague my life. Though I’m an arachnophobe, I’m trying to think first and thump later. If it is possible to usher a spider outdoors away from my body, I try. I’m even trying to avoid, rather than annihilate, wasps. Sigh. If they get me I’m doomed for several days. But I’m with you on mosquitoes. What earthly purpose do they serve? Except, perhaps, food for birds.

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    1. quiall Post author

      I know mosquitoes are probably cross pollinators but I just see them as harbingers of death. They take blood from one creature and slobbered over another and that is disgusting. I’m sure biologist are laughing at me.

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  9. Mark Lanesbury

    Now this is a very interesting topic Pam…Spirit passed something on to me that in hindsight I fully understand. Of all things that God doesn’t want…it is killing. Simply because he wants everyone to have a chance at seeing the beauty of His love within us. If your dead your restricted as you are no longer on this conditional world to create those experiences to understand it. Even the murderer’s (even though they’ve killed someone), the criminals, the thieves…even politicians. He wants us all to know that unconditional love…unconditionally. But…apparently there is a line drawn in the sand somewhere…I wasn’t shown where or when…it’s just there somewhere. Probably in our hearts 😀
    And still along those lines of other bits of nature to kill or not to kill…while pulling some boxes out of an old cupboard, I had a spider the size of my hand (called a huntsman over here, huge things they are, poisonous but not like some of the nastier ones we get over here, the ones with just one sideways glance can drop 40 horses, 8 dogs, 2 cats and probably even scare my mother in law. Don’t tell her I said that 🤣), ran up my arm, up under my sleeve and around to the center of my back…now at this point I could have run screaming all over the place, but with all the cool I could muster I slowly walked up to and unlocked the door out onto my balcony, slowly took my shirt off and waited, and waited, and thought ‘come on already’, I’ve just released you…so I had to encourage him to move by putting my hand over my shoulder to which he ran down my leg and took off…and thankfully not back into my door I had just left wide open 😱. Ah life, it tests us everywhere doesn’t it 🤣❤️🙏🏽

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. quiall Post author

      I would have been terrified! Kudos to you! We all have a place to play in this planet of ours and unfortunately some of them do have to die to play their part. The circle of life includes death.

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  12. Sorryless

    I try not to kill insects unless it’s me or them (Yeah, I’m talking you YOU wasps and hornets!). But those little water ants, I have killed them indiscriminately. And I got away with it!

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