PETA: Living On Purpose for a Purpose

Saturday after watching my son compete at Cheersport National Cheerleading Competition at the Georgia World Congress Center, I noticed a commotion in front of the Philip’s Arena. Upon further investigation, I realized that the Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey circus was in town. Shortly thereafter, I noticed a PETA protest regarding how the Ringling Bros. treated the elephants.

From afar, I have always thought that PETA takes things to an extreme that I thought of as obnoxious. Some of the outrageous stunts, as listed at ecosalon.com and listserve.com, include:

• Purchasing a grave plot near Kentucky Fried Chicken founder, Colonel Sanders, and among other things, inscribing a poem on the grave with a hidden message “KFC tortures birds” in it.
• Asking Ben & Jerry’s to use human milk (instead of cow milk) for their ice cream products.
• Requiring their interns to participate in extreme stunts that were painful.
• Co-found Ingrid Newkirk asking that, upon her death, her flesh be barbecued and her skin used to make leather products.

Things to Remember When Living Purposely

While speaking to one of the PETA representatives, I remembered what an arduous task it is to live your life on purpose. My passion is for me to inspire you to live your life on purpose for a purpose. I caution that you have to keep in mind that:

• Not everyone will agree or support your purpose.
• You are going to make mistakes along the way.
• While it is rewarding, it is exhausting.
• Sometimes you will stand alone; while other times you will be cheered on.

Responsibilities You Have When Living Purposely

There are responsibilities that come with living your life on purpose for a purpose:

• Be aware of when your passion turns into bullying.
• Take responsibility for wrong turns.
• Don’t expect your purpose to be everyone else’s purpose.
• Care about other people’s causes if you want them to care about yours.
• Don’t be self-consumed.
• Love people without having an alternative motivation.

I look at the world and try to see what other people are seeing. I appreciated what those protesters were doing. No, I don’t share nor do I agree with all of the extreme tactics that PETA uses–at times, it appears to defeat the purpose. They did, however, convince me to never go to a Ringling Bros. event until some changes are made in the way they treat those precious animals.