SABBATICAL

SABBATICAL

Sunday, August 29, 2010

WHAT ARE PEOPLE FOR?

I took my grand-daughter (age 11 at the time) to hear the Vienna Boys Choir perform. On the way home, she and a friend were talking and giggling in the back seat when my grand-daughter suddenly asked, "Papa, why did Heavenly Father make leeches?" I don't know where that question came from. My reply that He must have thought they were important, simply provoked a large, "Yuck!" from my grand-daughter. She obviously disagrees with Heavenly Father.
For several years I was involved in mosquito control activities. One of the most frequently asked question was, “What good are mosquitoes?” At first I took the question quite seriously because it provided me with the opportunity to showcase my otherwise useless biological knowledge and understanding of ecological matters. But it soon became apparent that people didn’t really care about the role mosquitoes might play in the natural ecosystem. For most people, the mere existence of mosquitoes is simply unfathomable.
But recently I had the random thought, “What are people for?” I think maybe people need to think about that a little.