Unlistening to the Voice of Reason

This is a repeat from the Kansas Homeschool website.

The other day I listened to my daughter, 8, explain to my son, 6, how she was going to save the world. Her plan, as she tells it, is to close all the meat packing plants when she grows up. She’s going to make mass butchering of animals illegal and likely throw everyone who has ever worked at a packing plant in jail.

It was at about that point when the “voice of reason” entered the conversation. I’m not even going to attempt to analyze exactly where this voice of reason comes from, for the moment, but it was, quite obviously, being channeled through me.

I heard myself saying, “Do you really think it would be fair to actually throw people in jail for working at a packing house? People need jobs, honey. People need to feed their families.”

And her reply was exactly what mine would have been at the age of eight.

“So. People should get jobs that don’t involve torturing and killing animals.”

But the “voice of reason” went on. “You can’t punish people for it. Everyone has to make a living. And I know it seems cruel, all those poor cattle squashed into those tiny pens, spending their final hours…”

She was muttering by that time. A quick glance in the rear-view mirror and I could see her little arms folded across her chest, her brow furrowed, “just like killing people… no different… why people think they can be so mean…”

I shut that “voice of reason” up as I watched that little fire of passion flicker and dim. It was as if she boxed it up and pulled it tight against her, hiding it from people like me, people who would encourage her to be “reasonable” and just accept that sometimes life is as life is, that bad things happen for a reason and there’s no use in asking people to change.

We rode in silence for far too long.

“You know,” I finally said, “You are right. Meat packing plants are bad on a number of levels and I’m sorry I said those things to you. I hope you do grow up and shut them down. It’s people like you who will make the world a better place for those animals and for the people who work in those plants.”

I wonder how often we give up on a dream, a goal, a plan to make the world a better place because so many “voices of reason” swirl around us, telling us to be cautious, be fair, be considerate, be realistic… How many times do we succumb to “reasonableness” before we cease to dream altogether? Why are we afraid to think differently? Why are we content to follow the crowd even when we don’t seem to like where the crowd is taking us? Why do we keep our mouths shut in fear of offending rather than speak out on the subjects that offend us?

Why do we?

Why do I…