PEANUTOPIA

No sex with carnivores (meat eaters), according to a group of vegansexuals in NZ. Well I guess if all vegans looked like the couple in the article, the whole concept of "veggie sex" would be relegated to a world where people actually liked broccoli. Wouldn't be prudent; that's my reaction to the thought of even considering a liaison with these potato people.

Fortunately the opportunity will never present itself because I'm safely married and besides that, I only go with omnivores. :)

My goodness how often does a perfectly genteel eccentricity degenerate into a kind of fascist insanity? In today's world it seems as if those things that divide us become the reason for burgeoning hatred rather than tolerance. Personally, I can tolerate vegans confining their breeding to their own kind as long as they keep their intolerance to themselves.

As a Christian I am quite used to abuse by the press and from others. Personally, I find that most people are neither good nor bad but seem to exist in an in between place. Many will talk about caring and even make the effort to help, but only up to a point. Seems to me that when Christ showed us how to "care" for others, he made the ultimate sacrifice. It's better to care about the fate of others rather than separate yourself from them. We all are riders on the same train, heading towards eternity. How we treat the least of our fellow passengers matters. There is true joy in service.

I recently wrote an article about Compassion and how it's quite different from "romantic love" and it's maxim about love and hate being two sides to same coin.

Here's the article:

Some think there is a thin line between love and hate. Perhaps that could be true if you only consider love to be one of the simple basic boy/girl emotions. But let me ask you a question. Have you ever been the recipient of compassionate love; did you feel that real hate was even a part of the same universe as that of the giver? I don't really think that true goodness and vile hatred can be comfortable together.

To enter the world of hate you have to pretty totally abandon the world of compassion and humanity. And of course the reverse is true. To enter the world of the compassionate you must totally abandon darkness. Not many will completely grasp this idea, because not that many people are willing to be truly compassionate. I don't think compassion is something you pine for like you might for a companion to share your life; no I believe compassion is something that you are made of.

To be compassionate, you of course must be able to free yourself of personal concerns for a time. In a materialistic world filled with empty gestures it's not that easy to adopt a true level of concern for the lives of others. To be compassionate you have to set aside your world and be open to understanding the world of each person that you meet so that their world unfolds with all of its mystery, pain and beauty. You can bond with people in a very intimate way but still maintain a separate understanding of your world too. There is little room in such a world for dark wrath or venial anger. That is not say that such negative feelings are not there, it's just that they aren't fed because your real focus is on feeding peoples real needs not inflaming their emotions.

Compassionate love demands action. It isn't romantic, nor is it idealistic. Compassionate love requires effort and movement. It requires that you work to understand the needs that another might have. This is therefore not an easy kind of love but it is fulfilling in a complete and satisfying way. Usually in long lasting marriages, this is the love that couples share. In fact it's why certain people often seem so tied together; it's truly an interwoven kind of feeling and it grows stronger, not weaker as those involved grow older. In rare cases whole communities can share this feeling if only for awhile. From such sharing we may see the flowering of true creativity, charity and peace. The results of this effort often leads in unexpected directions and this in turn fuels our delight in being with others.