Brief lesson of the day – Compassion

A friend of mine posted this – Click here, and asked how was he qualified to speak against dogfighting. This is one of those lessons that’s hard to grasp, as our society has done so well with evolving themselves to treat animals respectfully. I remember when this happened, I didn’t really digest the news other than with anger. I was upset. BUT I didn’t know the whole story. I simply took the easy route and let it stay at anger, rather than doing soul searching.

During my last visit to VA, a friend (Thanks Becky!) pointed out a lot of things, such as the fact that he is still a human being. Heck, if we didn’t make mistakes, we wouldn’t be human. We are all here to learn a lesson. So of course I was conflicted, I wondered to myself how could I forgive such a person, because from the bottom of my heart I love watching the progress of the Michael Vick dogs (see here), and it wasn’t easy to watch how poorly injured they were when they were admitted. BUT… these dogs are little messengers (as I’m convinced all dogs are). They came here to have Michael Vick caught, and to have him learn the big lesson he needed to learn this lifetime. This never ever means a person is “bad” or “awful”, it simply means they lived fairly unconsciously without really thinking about the repercussions from his actions. In other words, he did something a lot of people do everyday. And more than the average amount of people out there live rather unconsciously, just living on a day to day basis without knowing they are the masters of their lives.

With this action to go speak in front of students about dogfighting and the ugly side of it, I believe Michael Vick is balancing what he screwed up. I’m sure a lot of people will say he HAD to do it, but the truth is every action we take, whether we want to or not, helps shape us into who we are. Eventually, it leads to us learning our lessons and becoming a better version of ourselves.

To answer the initial question, I must say he is the perfect person to talk about this subject. He has seen it, he has been punished for it, and now he is going to other schools to make sure children of his old social status do not make the same mistakes he made. It is like having someone talk to you about not doing drugs when they themselves haven’t tried them or seen the bad effects, other than what they see on TV. Would you want that person talking to your children? Most likely not. So, I would love to have Michael Vick talk to my (hypothetical) children!

I have to say compassion is the toughest lesson of all. We look up to people who practice(d) it, but never realize that we have that ability ourselves. We all do. That is something that will make your life brighter, your soul a little lighter, and the smile on your face easier to form.

If there’s something I’ve learned in my whole life, it is that everyone is a good person. You just have to give them a little bit of time and a chance to show it.

xoxo

-Water Baby