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I read about Randy Pausch last year when InformationWeek ran an article about him.  That single page of text was so inspiring, I ripped it out of the magazine; it's still floating around the apartment somewhere.  Fast forward about seven months, and what do I catch but a special on television about him (a series of interviews with Diane Sawyer).  His story is so inspiring and so sad at the same time.  I think that's because it is all our stories, in time.  Haven't heard of Randy Pausch?  Watch the video from his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University.  It's time well spent.

I don't know how people can be so cold when it comes to the humane treatment of animals.  How did they manage to get through life without learning something about compassion?  If they're at all religious, aren't they concerned about getting demerits in the hereafter?  I guess it's safe to say, "probably not" - at least not in America where four out of five people are Christian versus, say, Buddhist.

It seems like mainstream Christianity is only religion that actively pushes how, "God has created animals for the use of human beings and human beings are therefore entitled to use them in any way they want."  This even though Judaism, the foundation of Christianity, tells its followers that, "The righteous person regards the life of his beast."  Sounds like something got lost in the translation somewhere, but at least theological critical analysis is not completely dead yet.

I started thinking about all of this (again) after reading an appalling story about a New Mexico resident and the mouse he tossed into a burning pile of leaves.  He already caught it and managed to get it outside...why not just let it go?  Every religion has some sort of equilibrium clause (the golden rule, karma, etc.), and whether or not he is a believer we'll never know.  But applause and respect to that little mouse, whose last act in this world was to run back into the house and burn it to the ground.