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One crane that went away
Aug. 6th, 2018 08:42 amCN: Animal Death
Expiation rituals are really important. Maybe that's more of a thing for me because of my perfectionist tendencies, but sometimes when you've done something bad, there's no restitution to make, nothing to learn that you didn't already know, you need away to acknowledge fault and then let it go.
So yeah. Due to this, confession/penance is one of those things that I sort of admire about Catholicism --- you know, until you turn the system and all its potential abuse vectors loose in the hands of actual neurotic humans rather than, like, Cadfael characters. My UU Church on the other hand, I don't think we've really got anything.
Driving home yesterday, I hit a squirrel. It was one of those times when it didn't know which way to run and ended up right under the wheel. I felt bad about it (being a big AkaYona fan doesn't help with feeling bad about killing squirrels, BTW), but what was there to do about it?
So after I got home I improvised an expiation ritual. I folded an extra paper crane and lit a tealight candle. With deep breaths, I asked the crane to tell the squirrel I was sorry and help it toward a happy reincarnation (turns out I believe in that, I guess?), then I burned the crane and let the tealight expend itself.
I think it worked.
Expiation rituals are really important. Maybe that's more of a thing for me because of my perfectionist tendencies, but sometimes when you've done something bad, there's no restitution to make, nothing to learn that you didn't already know, you need away to acknowledge fault and then let it go.
So yeah. Due to this, confession/penance is one of those things that I sort of admire about Catholicism --- you know, until you turn the system and all its potential abuse vectors loose in the hands of actual neurotic humans rather than, like, Cadfael characters. My UU Church on the other hand, I don't think we've really got anything.
Driving home yesterday, I hit a squirrel. It was one of those times when it didn't know which way to run and ended up right under the wheel. I felt bad about it (being a big AkaYona fan doesn't help with feeling bad about killing squirrels, BTW), but what was there to do about it?
So after I got home I improvised an expiation ritual. I folded an extra paper crane and lit a tealight candle. With deep breaths, I asked the crane to tell the squirrel I was sorry and help it toward a happy reincarnation (turns out I believe in that, I guess?), then I burned the crane and let the tealight expend itself.
I think it worked.
