Dear Maria,
Although the following improvement in chicken husbandry is far from ideal, in the real world, political change almost always occurs by increments.
New California For Humane Treatment Of Chickens Bodes Egg Shortage
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/new-california-for-humane-treatment-of.html
Once, when I was "hot under the collar" about some current event, Arthur Clark said to me: "Alan, the world which you and I would like to see may take a hundred thousand years to become reality."
In similar vein, Grampa used to say that humans are "imperfect creatures" and that we must work within -- and make allowance for -- homo sapiens' limitations.
(Here are a couple of interesting facts about Grampa: I once asked what his favorite animal was and without hesitation he replied: "The human animal." 20 years later, when Grampa died at age 86, he was carrying his recently updated Greenpeace membership card in his wallet.)
Mediterranean Diet: Live Longer, Live Better, Live In Community
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-mediterranean-diet-live-longer-live.html
Excerpt: "The problem with perfection is that its innate unattainability (under most circumstances) prevents us
-- out of frustration with our inability to be perfect --
from actually achieving the good that IS within our grasp."
Priest-monk Thomas Merton made this same point about "the paralysis of perfection," which reminds me of this truth: By trying to be like the angels, humankind falls lower than the beasts. Or as Shakespeare put it: "This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man." (From memory, I recalled this line as "To thine own self be true and it then must follow as night the day that thou canst be false to no man.")
"The terrible thing about our time is precisely the ease with which theories can be put into practice. The more perfect, the more idealistic the theories, the more dreadful is their realization. We are at last beginning to rediscover what perhaps men knew better in very ancient times, in primitive times before utopias were thought of: that liberty is bound up with imperfection, and that limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”
"Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander,” by Trappist monk, Father Thomas Merton
The last bit begs repetition:
"Liberty is bound up with imperfection... Limitations, imperfections, errors are not only unavoidable but also salutary. The best is not the ideal. Where what is theoretically best is imposed on everyone as the norm, then there is no longer any room even to be good. The best, imposed as a norm, becomes evil.”
More Merton Quotes
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/04/merton-best-imposed-as-norm-becomes.html
"Is Perfectionism A Curse? Paul Ryan Tells The Truth"
The New Testamental verse, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" is more accurately rendered as "Be complete, whole and entire as your heavenly Father is complete, whole and entire."
"Is Perfectionism A Curse? Paul Ryan Tells The Truth"
The New Testamental verse, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" is more accurately rendered as "Be complete, whole and entire as your heavenly Father is complete, whole and entire."
Law of love
43 “You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you 45 so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing? Don't even the Gentiles do the same? 48Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete.
43 “You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you 45 so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing? Don't even the Gentiles do the same? 48Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete.
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