Defining Sin

Defining Sin

“It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

So said Scout as she had heard and been taught,

Recorded in the famous novel.

Poof! A muffled mini-explosion,

A matter of a second

And a brief shower of gray and white feathers.

Cooper’s hawks can’t read,

At least not the ones that swoop through my back yard.

 (August 23, 2011)

Questions and Thoughts

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird , sympathy and pleasure are associated with the loquacious, melodious mockingbird and mockingbird-like people—those who do some good for others with no expectation of repayment, just because it seems right. I might tend to think the hawk bad for feasting on the bird, but that is instinct, a primitive code of nature embedded in all creatures. Humans alone have a higher thought process to evaluate and recognize not only instinct working in animals but also instinct trying to work in humans. Sometimes I need to listen to those natural urgings; other times I need to think, manage, and create responses that are suitable, excellent, and intelligent—beyond mere instinct. In reality the mockingbird is not good nor the hawk bad. The difference is in my thoughts about them.

How do I think about natural processes?

How might I use an understanding of nature to inform my self-identity?

How can the predator-prey process help me to understand myself and my involvement in life?

What values do I hold, values that make some things a sin and some things not, for me?