Value of Life

So I made the decision to stand firm in my beliefs and damn the consequences. There really isn't much room left for fear these days, with desire, ambition, and stress consuming the majority of my functional hours. Besides, fear is only an issue until you realize that beyond it's menacing face, lay an endless universe of possibilities that you may be hiding yourself from. Once you come to terms with this, fear transforms from an uncomfortable feeling, to a mental game of calculating risks and potentials.

Oh and the cheese burgers are delicious!

Yes, it does cheapen the feeling, but then again, all thought cheapens the feeling. Just as feelings cheapen the thought. They generally don't work well together, but we're stuck with both of them eventually..

I've been vacillating over whether or not to start rambling about a topic that has been intermittently popping into my head for years now, but becomes more relevant with each passing day... I'm not resolved in my feelings yet, but the question is, "What is the value of a life?"

There are so many life forms, bacteria, plants, animals, humans, the list goes on. It's very human to assign these life forms varying values. For most, humans on top, followed by animals, then plants, then bacteria and such. We tend to favor those which we can identify with over those which are foreign to us. I suppose this is not unlike how most deal with race. When I decide to kill something, sometimes the thought enters my mind, how do I accept that it's my right to decide if something will live or not, and how is this any different than killing a person? If you remove the legal system, is there a difference? Does one life truly have more value than another? How is it okay to kill plants to eat but not animals, or your best friend? What's the difference? I can more closely relate to one? Don't get me wrong, I'm not a hippie tree hugger, but there is something hypocritical about how we assign these values. For now... I'm forced to simply believe that some killings are choice, some inevitable, some unintentional. It's an unkind part of nature that can only be accepted because there are few if any life form who's sustenance does not depend on the expiration of another.