An eye for an eye?

I agree that it is OK to eat meat - for the same reasons as Ciariad - I also love eating it, although there are certain meaty things that I do not eat, in France they eat a lot of Horse, Rabbit and Veal - I cannot bring myself to eat these. Horse, because I do not view it as an animal to be eaten (I cannot explain why!) I suppose it is that I have not been brought up to eat it - although it is supposed to be very good and tastes just like beef. Rabbit - because they are pets and are soft and fluffy. I have eaten my Mother-in-Laws Rabbit in Mustard sauce several times
- but only out of politeness. Veal, for obvious reasons - the manner in which the animals are farmed. However, hypocritically, I do eat Fois Gras at Christmas which my Mother in Law makes and which is absolutely delicious - but the liver it is made from comes from gross-overfeeding of ducks and geese with corn which in turn can kill the birds and seriously damage their livers. So how can I justify eating this - I can't, only by saying that I do enjoy it very much and only eat it once per year....still, I am fueling the need to carry on this practice.

Overall, I do not agree with the death penalty, but I can understand in extreme circumstances why someone might want to retaliate for the death of a very close relative or sibling with an 'eye-for-an-eye' - I believe it to be a strong human gut reaction. Not a feeling which perhaps I might feel - but I have never been put in this situation. Yes, I truly admire, those that can forgive.

On the subject of abortion, I can only go by my own experience. I had an abortion when I was 21 - it was not an easy decision for me - I could have quite easily dealt with a little one, so I couldn't put the decision down to my age. But it was not the right time for me, and it was not with the right person, therefore, my judgement was based on the fact that I would not have been a happy mother, and would perhaps have begrudged this new life coming into the world - i also was not sure that the person I was pregnant by was the right person for me to be with in the longer term, and this new life, would, I felt, have bound us together. I do realise that these were very selfish reasons. And I do realise that I killed a living thing, but I could not think of it at that time as a living thing - I had to blot that out, I had to think of it in an abstract form as something which I was not attached to. Something that would not have felt pain.

I do now have 2 lovely children who I love dearly and think the world of, and I do sometimes think that I could have had another who would now be 25.

I believe abortion to be a truly personal thing, and an enormous decision to make. It was not easy for me emotionally, or physically, and I had very little emotional support from the Father, but it was the decision I felt I had to make at the time.

This was not easy for me to write about even now, all these years later.

Moving on to other things, I wonder bruv, if you could expand on the three vows:
'Not to succumb to anger', 'not to praise oneself at the expense of others' and not to criticise the faults of others.

I do get angry sometimes, (not often) but when I do I feel it to be a release of a lot of pent-up emotions - I therefore view getting angry as a way of releasing those emotions and clearning them from my mind and body - i therefore view this as a positive emotion although I appreciate that depending upon the person anger can be used in a very negative way.

I have difficulty in clarifying the second and third vows above. Perhaps you could expand upon them.

I am also guilty of using harsh words - particularly with my menopausal mood swings but I do always apologise afterwards and try to explain how I was feeling when I said those things. I think this is important with my children, so that they understand that it is my problem, not theirs.

I do have great difficulty in not criticising the faults of others. To me that is a natural reaction. If someone has done something which I do not agree with - I may criticise them. But being a Libran, I do always try to see both sides of the coin and weigh up why someone might have done something wrong. What are your thoughts on these vows?