Vacations Are Over Too Soon

So last week, we went to Walt Disney World in Orlando.  It was a fantastic week of course.  The excitement starts a few months before and the anticipation builds.  Then there are the wonderful moments at the start of the vacation.  The first time we cross the line into Florida, the first time we check into the resort, the first moment we walk into the Magic Kingdom and walk down Main Street.

Of course during the vacation sometimes it's hard for me not to think about the fact that soon all of this joy will be over and we'll be on our way back to our normal lives.  On the first few days of the trip it's still good and I keep thinking "we've still got 5 more days".  Then comes that point at which you realize that the vacation is more than half over and the fun will have to end soon.  I made a conscious effort on this past trip to just live in the moment and push such thoughts out of my head.  Better memories will come of enjoying each day to the fullest and not thinking about the fact that it will end.

We've been back for almost a week now.  I looked at my daughter who is now 13 and was thinking that in a few years she can help drive on vacations.  Then it hit me.  Her childhood and time living with us is more than half over.  I love both of my daughters and I love the times we spend together.  Every day of it.  I love hearing the thoughts they have, jokes they make and just seeing their personalities grow stronger.  It's very sad for me to think that some day they will be grown up and then I will only see them a couple of times a week if I'm lucky, maybe once a month or less if their lives lead them away.  I know that I will miss these times when I get to see them every day when I come home from work and they ask me "What are we going to do daddy?"

Then the thought hit me, my children's childhood is just like a magical vacation.  It's a wonderful magical time that doesn't last forever.  It starts out with a lot of excitement and the feeling that it will last forever but time seems to pass quickly.  I'm not sure that life after kids will be as enjoyable and I will surely miss them.  But rather than spend time being sad about the fact that it's temporary, I want to make the most of every day and enjoy every moment.  It's late at night now but I'm looking forward to getting up in the morning and finding out what we will do together.

Why Save the Whales and Not Tuna?

OK, I said that I would continue with the money discussion, but this seemed a little more interesting for the moment.  I'll get back to money later.

My wife often watches the show "Whale Wars".  If you haven't seen it, it is a reality show about a ship called the "Sea Shepherd" on which activists try to stop Japanese whalers from killing whales.  It's quite intense at times and it is easy to get emotionally involved quickly.

Now I like animals and think they should all be treated kindly.  I even lean towards being a vegetarian and I can easily understand the reasoning of the activists wanting to save the whales.  The whales are in fact beautiful animals that seem to be on the higher end of the intelligence spectrum.  But I have to wonder then, if I can sympathize with the activists in wanting to save the whales, why wouldn't I think it was wrong to kill a tuna?

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not actually saying it is right or wrong to kill a whale, or right or wrong to kill a tuna, I'm just pointing out that there seems to be a big inconsistency in protecting one and not the other.

Whales are definitely more intelligent than a tuna.  So does that mean that if something is intelligent we should fight for it but if it's stupid then it's OK to kill it?  That seems to be the way we operate.

I came to two conclusions, one about myself and one about people in general.

For people in general, it seems that if an animal can communicate or appeal on an emotional level, then a large number of people will respond to this emotional connection and fight for it.  But animals that cannot appeal emotionally to humans are ignored.  So it's basically a popularity contest.  If you're a likable animal like a whale, dolphin or seal then activists will fight for you, if you're ugly or can't communicate happiness or pain in a way that humans would understand then you're on your own.

Now for myself, I have to admit.  Something inside of me wants to agree with the activists.  Something inside tells me that this killing of these creatures is wrong.  Yet at the same time, I cannot come up with a good reason why I don't feel the same about the tilapia that I ate last week except for the fact that I am human like everyone else and seem to operate with the same emotions as most of the public in general.


P.S.
As a Christian, I struggle with this also.  My instincts would tell me that killing animals is wrong, yet Christ ate fish and in the New Testament St Paul is given a vision in which he is told that it is OK to kill and eat.  I'm still not sure how to reconcile this particular fact yet.  There's a whole lot more to that which I will talk about another time.

Why So Many Opinions?

I've wondered why it is that on just about every subject there are so many different opinions and theories when we all have pretty much the same set of facts and similar brains with which to form opinions.

Stepping aside from religion, what about things like politics and what is the best way to balance the budget?  Even among a group of people that all agree about the definition of a "good" outcome of a balanced budget, the opinions about what should be done vary.

I've also noticed that if I try to be unbiased and listen to the different viewpoints and reasoning behind them I find that most do have a sound set of reasoning.  In a way they are all logical and make sense.  Yet they cannot all be right.  So how can so many people with seemingly good rational thinking come up with so many different conclusions?

The best answer that I can come up with is that each conclusion makes sense within the context of the individual that came up with it.  That is, if you factor in someone's life experiences, their environment and the issues that they care about then often their reasoning and conclusions make sense.  The fact is however that on complex issues, or sometimes simple ones, no one human can hold in their mind every fact that is needed to come up with the true answer.  I think this is true even of things like cosmology and trying to figure out things like black holes, or dark matter.

I believe that for most things there is one true answer.  However each of us in humility must admit that we on our own cannot see the whole picture and thus our conclusion about the truth is often wrong.

This is why that any one person should not sit down with a Bible or other religious document, study it and then on their own without consultation of anyone else go enforcing their "revelation" on others.  This is exactly how we end up with wacky religious teachings and billboards giving exact dates for the end of the world.  Or you get politicians willing to send people to death over their ideology.

Getting things started....

My first blog entry.  I am a middle aged man with a wife and two kids living in the midwest.  I was raised in an evangelical Christian environment.  I consider myself a Christian. Though in the past I have spent a lot of time questioning that.

Every day I try to understand what I see in the world.  I want to know what the truth is.  Is there a God?  Do I believe in a God just because I was raised that way?  Why are there so many religions? Am I just a pattern of molecules, or something more?  And if so, why?  Why? Why? Why?

Currently I am at a sort of crossroads in my beliefs and thinking and that will be a lot of what I blog about.