Mikey and I spent an hour or so discussing our personal morals and ethics today at lunch. I am finding that the world events of the past year are really making me look deep into who I am and how I live my life. For the most part, I am very happy. I think I live a good life. There are a few areas that I am concerned with. For example, I say that killing humans is wrong in any way, shape or form. There is NO reason good enough to excuse it. But I suffer no qualms at eating a hamburger or chicken breast. Am I really okay with that? Is the line in the right spot or do I need to adjust it to be comfortable with myself and the example I am setting for my students? Obviously I could say that killing anything is wrong. But a girl has got to eat. I'm not quite ready to starve myself to save a carrot. So where do I draw the line and how do I decide? Deep thoughts to ponder over my spring break. Where is YOUR line? And what is your justification for it?

*To ease my conscience while I work through this question Mikey and I are both committing to eating less meat. We aren't cutting it out completely, but we are choosing to find more of our nutrition through plants for a while.

As for some of the other ethical questions we faced today...
*I am not going to give up my car. But I don't know if I will replace it when it finally dies. And I will ride my bike to school whenever possible.
*I am not going to stop spraying my property against ant invasions, but I will not use weed killers on my lawn. Not so much because I like weeds, but because I like the birds and the butterflies.
*I am not going to give up my dryer completely, but when I wash sheets I will hang them in the backyard.

None of this is going to single-handedly save the world, but each of these decisions will make a tiny bit of a difference to be added to the tiny bits all the other consciencious people are making. And it will make it easier for me to look my students in the eye each day. After all, they are the ones I really have to answer to.