After an interesting interaction with a pro-nature (uber green), pro-animal (PETA supporter), pro-choice (pro-abortion) individual last week, I can’t help but muse about the inconsistency in how we live versus what we expect of others.
Consider these examples:
A client of mine last year who demanded respect in the workplace but who also routinely tore layers off those around him. He might have attempted to tear limbs off as well – I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. I guess he was providing us with an example so that we could see the contrast between right and wrong.
Someone running a local charity who made about $250K per year. She demanded that her employees and anyone contracting with her organization should work for as little as possible (free was preferred) because “it was a privilege to serve such an organization”. When I questioned her about the contrast that her salary offered as compared to what she paid everyone else, she replied “I deserve it and you get what you pay for”. True enough – maybe that’s why she is having a hard time attracting good talent.
And then I return to the person who sparked my musing about consistency. It all started when I happened to make an observation about the irony of humanity in that it finds the existence of bacteria on Mars as a sign of Life whereas we freely abort babies, including late-term in some countries. We do it without thought since we apparently assume that the aborted fetus hasn’t achieved the official status of “Life” yet.
This person was uber green, promoting the importance of protecting ALL life on this planet (emphasis is hers). Pursuant to this, she was a PETA supporter and demanded that we treat all animals with the same respect as human beings.
Fair enough – such beliefs appear to be consistent in her outlook on the sanctity of Life.
However, she pointed out the importance of supporting ANY action to protect Life on this earth, including killing people who didn’t respect Life.
Uh … say that again?
She was also a strong advocate of pro-choice, that women should have the right to abort a fetus at any point in the pregnancy.
I was intrigued by all of this and asked her if she saw any inconsistency in her belief that all Life was sacred.
She replied that we have to do what it takes to protect Life. As for abortion, she indicated that “everyone knew’ that Life begins at birth to which I replied that science has shown that the fetus responds to external stimuli, including the voices of “Mom” and others that it hears on a regular basis. Doesn’t this suggest that the fetus is “alive”?
She indicated that she didn’t get my point.
To make it simple, I asked her how bacteria on Mars could be considered “more alive” than a fetus and she grew very angry with my questions and we didn’t get very far after that.
I don’t think she was angry with me specifically although her anger was directed at me.
I think her anger arose when an inconsistency in her own thought patterns was made apparent before both of us and not knowing how to deal with it, she fell back on the old standby:
“If I yell and scream and make him go away, then I don’t need to think about or resolve my own inconsistencies.”
We all know what happens when we push a problem to the side without addressing it.
It is guaranteed to come back at an inconvenient time, possibly with more ferocity.
And now a technical digression …… :-)
As a ham radio operator, I have to be aware of something called SWR or standing wave ratio. In simple terms, it’s a ratio between how much energy I transmit to my antenna and how much of that energy is actually reflected back from antenna if my antenna is not tuned properly. If too much energy comes back from the antenna, it can actually burn out my transmitter and for this reason, ham radio operators tune their antenna so that the energy sent to the antenna is actually transmitted to the outside world as efficiently as possible and not reflected back to the transmitter.
I look at Life in the same way.
Our ability to manifest what is important to us (intentions, beliefs, desires, etc.) is only possible when our “antenna” (represented by our messages and actions) is tuned to allow our message to be transmitted efficiently and not return to bite us in the butt.
Our “antenna” is tuned when that which we wish to promote or see manifest in the world is consistent with our actions.
When we are in fine tune, what we are capable of creating is incredible and virtually unlimited.
When we are out of tune, we will find that the energy that reflects back to us creates a lot of angst within. And when we feel the negative energy coming back, it is a warning to tune up “our antenna” or risk burning out “the transmitter”.
If we don’t heed the warning, our message never reaches the world and we end up becoming burnt out.
Are your intentions and desires consistent with the message you are broadcasting?
Are they reaching the world as you wish them to or are most of them merely reflecting back to you and burning you out?
How do you know?
In service and servanthood,
Harry
Excellent lesson in communication.Understand the full depth and truth of your own message before you broadcast it. Sometimes what you think you know or understand and what you actually do can be as far apart as bacteria on Mars and a developing fetus in an earthly womb.
ReplyDelete