(no subject)

To those who filled my request of paying for 2 months of LJ in return for postage for Mardi Gras packages -- thank you very much! Hope they arrived in good condition and that they were worth the wait.

seraphimsigrist mailed the $5 instead and, to sweeten the deal, included a few paper icons, which, as icons do, have their own style of striking beauty. This was a nice gift -- thank you, Father.

( Icons of Peter embracing Andrew, Francis of Assisi )

The icon of Peter and Andrew hugging was presented to the Roman Catholic Pope by the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch, and was meant to demonstrate fraternal fellowship between the two long-distant branches of the Christian faith.

A brave image, given nearly 1,000 years of misunderstanding and enmity. But imagine something even braver. Imagine an image of Jesus embracing Mohammed, or Buddha, or all such figures seated together at a table breaking bread. I'm convinced that, if they had been given the chance, this is what they would have done, without hesitation.

When these people gave their teachings, they meant to bring people together, not drive them apart. There is enough division in the world. Instead the teachings became symbols of national pride, of creedal superiority. It's long past time for people to discard these thoughts, yet they persist.

Clarification on yesterday's news item

rmwilliamsjr commented to me that the horrific incident I posted on yesterday regarding 30,000 chickens turns out to have been misreported. They were killed first using carbon dioxide, before being fed into the wood chippers.

This is certainly a different scenario than the idea of feeding live chickens into a wood chipper, as was previously reported, and while no less grotesque in some ways, clearly a less inhumane, and inhuman, event to contemplate.

-- Edit: now I'm reading things that contradict this. So now I am completely confused about what happened, and what didn't happen. In any case I think the event has raised consciousness a fair amount, perhaps we'll see some incremental improvement in the handling of livestock.