I recently read about some ecologists at the University of Washington who found that willow trees transmit a warning to other willows from as far away as two hundred feet. When caterpillars are attacking, the trees emit a chemical signal that travels with the wind. This enables distant trees to prepare their protection, phenol in the leaves (which is distasteful to the caterpillars). This advance warning of an attack amazes scientists. The individual trees have the ability to behave in a way that benefits not just themselves but the whole species.
Are we not a higher form of species than willow trees? Shouldn’t we behave in a way that benefits not just ourselves but all of humanity? Just as the trees did for themselves, they also did for others. Shouldn’t we treat other people as you would like to be treated.
Follow the "golden rule." Put yourself in the other person's place and ask yourself how you would like to be treated. Would you want to be discriminated against because of the color of your skin, what you wear, where you live, which school you attend(ed)? Would you want to be taken advantage of in a business transaction? People of integrity think of others.
Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:31 NRSV)
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