Pre-meditation

Two weeks ago, I found a new reason to clean. It started in the garage, next to the furnace. I blocked off a cabinet I knew led deeper into the house. Next, I found droppings behind the washing machine. I tore down cardboard boxes and taped them to the walls, cutting off possible access points. I cleared out, organized, moved dog food and rag piles, stacked items in another room.

Every morning I swept, swept, swept new droppings. Few, tiny, hard, black: I didn't mind too much. I descended into the subterranean area of the crawl-space to check for a nest. No luck – not that I would have known what to do if I had found something. They are in the space in-between the slab and a finished, two-stair platform that suspends the utilities bathroom. How did they get in there? When will they leave?

The visits decreased, no longer every night. I held hope they would disappear, find some other place to go. But it is snowing again and cold outside. Why would they leave? So, I went to the 'household cleaning' aisle this week. I found my options. I swayed from one foot to the other, trap or poison, trap or poison. [Thank God they were only tiny mice and not HUGE rats! Those traps would take my hand off.] At last, I couldn't bring myself to purchase one of those heinous hook-and-bar traps. I grabbed a box of poison. [Apart from garden pests, I have never plotted to kill anything. I'm even switching to non-toxic cleaning supplies. This is traumatic.]

Their visits were unreliable. I waited. Finally I put on gloves – you shouldn't even open the box without them - and put out the bait. The first night nothing. No bait missing. No droppings. I wondered if it would work at all. How much would they eat? But the next morning, I was shocked. The entire bait was gone; most of the droppings were in the paper box where the green pellets had been. They sure were tiny rodents. “Kills in as little as one feeding.” Should I put out another box? Yes. Two nights later, they ate that completely, too! It's just a waiting game now. Box Three is out for tonight. Do they have tummy aches?

Well, now I've killed knowingly. It's a new experience. Certainly I have been complicit in the ignorant killing my species makes a habit (another blog topic). But this is not a sin of ignorance. To plot demise, to put out bait, wait for death, wonder if I will find it [squish it] or if it will die underneath my floorboards...

I don't feel guilty – exactly. Here at the end of this post, I am waiting to name my feelings. Realistic and matter-of-fact. My abode not theirs. A desire to prevent actual damage that would cost.

How does this connect with my recent reading on non-violence? Is violence only violence when committed against another person? Certainly one can commit violence against nature. How does one deter pests, especially once they enter your sphere? Perhaps this jump is too big. Death is a part of Life, part of this Fallen World, my present Reality.

Violence: Male v. Female

It's fascinating how deeply seeded the Male v. Female perspective is. I do not think I am sexist, but do acknowledge some inconsistencies in my attitudes toward members of each gender. 

[First of all, attitudes arise out of stereotypes, stereotypes out of generalizing, generalizing out of ignorance. When I don't take the time to know a person, it's easy to insert assumptions about them.]

The America I live in has taken much of its culture from Ancient Greece and Rome. Our calendar, our system of government, our mythology (as detailed by Mr. Wink, "Facing the Myth of Redemptive Violence").

Excerpt:

In the Babylonian myth ... violence is no problem. It is simply a primordial fact. ...Typically, a male war god residing in the sky fights a decisive battle with a female divine being, usually depicted as a monster or dragon, residing in the sea or abyss (the feminine element). Having vanquished the original enemy by war and murder, the victor fashions a cosmos from the monster’s corpse. Cosmic order requires the violent suppression of the feminine, and is mirrored in the social order by the subjection of women to men and people to ruler.

That last sentence blows me away. How insidious, the Lie that pits one part of humanity against the other, claiming to restore balance. Why can't the male war god and the female divine being get along? They don't reside in the same part of town. Why must it be either/or? It sounds like the Drive to Fix things can be Destructive. 

So - pair this cultural perspective with a Christian faith and you get - Confused. 

The biblical myth in Genesis 1 is diametrically opposed to all this (Genesis 1, it should be noted, was developed in Babylon during the Jewish captivity there as a direct rebuttal to the Babylonian myth). The Bible portrays a good God who creates a good creation. Chaos does not resist order. Good is prior to evil. Neither evil nor violence is part of the creation, but enter later, as a result of the first couple’s sin and the connivance of the serpent (Genesis 3). A basically good reality is thus corrupted by free decisions reached by creatures. In this far more complex and subtle explanation of the origins of things, violence emerges for the first time as a problem requiring solution.

Perhaps these two competing viewpoints play off each other when trying to interpret Scripture. For instance, the Apostle Peter extols readers to be gentle with the 'weaker partner' (1 Peter 3:7). His word choice leaves something to be desired. Would he change it if he saw what contention it has caused? It's true that women are (generally) weaker physically. Although men and women are created out of the same stuff, I think that is where most comparisons should stop. We both have bodies (although very different), feelings, active minds, needs, spirits...but comparing Apples to Pears is just not fair. 

But, back to my point - I agree that systems need a manager, nations need persons of authority, families need direction. However, the complete subjection of women to every whim and wish of men goes too far. Yet, even being a woman does not exempt me from being critical of Women, even objectifying them when encouraged to do so. 

Reading this article helped me to see through to the attitudes that have seeped into my unconscious. Realizing the ridiculousness of warring genders helps me see the dividing walls Satan builds. Once those walls are exposed, I see the Lies in contrast to the Truth: It is for Freedom that Messiah set you free (Gal. 5:1). Now, there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Gal. 3:28). So, Be Reconciled to each other as you are to God through The Prince of Peace's work on the Cross. Through Him we have access to the Father (Eph. 2), and can put off the Old and put on the New (Eph. 4:22).