There are gophers who have made their home in the front lawn of the place where I work. They've been there a long time, at least as long as I've worked there. On the days when I mow the lawn, the challenge is to not get a wheel stuck in their holes. I don't mind. It's not a big deal. Generally, I try to co-habitate with the wildlife in my life, after all, I consider myself an intruder on their turf, rather than the other way around.

My employers, however, do not feel the same way. They are inconcievably perturbed by the presence of the gophers. They bitch constantly about them, they take joy in the running-and-hiding of the gophers whenever a truck pulls up, they pack the holes full of dirt, stuff them full of gravel, flood the holes with hoses, set snares. They're like children with magnifying glasses crouched by an anthill, or pulling the wings off of flies. For some reason, the logic for which is lost on me, they aspire to cause suffering in any way they can to the hapless gophers.

It must be said that my heart goes out to the gophers.

There is one boy at work who I get along with quite well. The others refer to us as "Team Sci-Fi" and he has proved a reliable source of science fiction novels and japanese comics. He approached me today wondering where the more neurotic half of our "boss" was, and I informed him of the scheme to drown the gophers.

He shook his head sadly and replied, "Buddha would not approve."

No indeed, he would not.

I LOVE this dynamic. That different humans can have similar values for completely different reasons. And maybe they're actually the same reasons, on a cosmic level.

There are things which are condemned by just about every cultural and religious group out there, and other things which are valued. Does the overlap of these values attest to their truth? I mean, I know that these days we say people should decide for themselves on an appropriate set of values, but it can't be left completely up to personal preference, can it? We can all think of people whose apparent values are extremely detrimental to the humans around them.

Then again, I think that most of us hanging around in this corner of the blogosphere agree that it's not acceptable to push one's own values on another human.

Maybe right and wrong are completely subjective, but the overlaps give us hints about the things that are generally pretty accurate. Murder, for example, is wrong, as is stealing..... generally speaking, while most cultures can agree that family is important.

The wonderful thing is that chinese buddhist and the american right wing fundamentalist can agree on these things, and came to these conclusions through vastly different cultures and religions.

So..... all truth is God's Truth?