Righteous Path
Objects are neither good nor evil. Not in the sense of their creation. They simply are objects, existing and taking up space. People label things, define them, give those objects meaning. At those ends, objects can be used to help or harm and to create or destroy. Existence is granted but meaning is given, things we do not understand get defined and redefined. We bend them until we see what we want too. Accept other's ideas when they match our own. We create common meaning. Sharing rules and regulations how items and objects must be used. But am I evil? Are you? Are we wrong in defining things we do not understand to reach comprehension? We seek meaning in things we do not understand. And our meaning twists, bends, and writhes within us.
Many religions around the world hold an idea that one should treat others as they wish to be treated. In essence, one should always treat other people well. The idea lends to karma, positive energy, and promoting well being towards mankind. If one always does the right thing, others will too - that is the belief held in this idea.
The three wise monkeys depict the idea of a golden rule, as stated treating others how you wish to be treated. A simple sort of way that states one should not harbor evil in their actions. Some believe there is a fourth monkey that represents think/do no evil. If this is the case, then evil is pushed completely out of everything for man. The monkey's paw reminds me of the three wise monkey's using their hands to cover each area. With this connection, the fourth monkey does not need a full body, and when people control it or hold it and think of things for their own gain they are not keeping true to the ideals of "Hear no Evil, See no Evil, Speak No Evil, Do no Evil."
In this idea I feel that the paw is neither good nor evil. The paw itself is nothing but a reminder to keep actions and thoughts pure, clean, or good. The reason, I feel, that it has undesirable results is because people's thoughts become clouded by want and greed. Going against the promotion of good and good will towards others for selfish gain slowly causes the good things to be pushed out for need and want of more. As previously mentioned, we name, rename, define, and redefien things. We grasp understanding and move forward. Tools we have to help us can also hurt us.
With this idea, I believe that all things have duality. Light and Dark, Love and Hate, Life and Death. Why then should our objects, our reminders, our tools be any different? Although the idea is to live right and do good things, humans are fickle creatures. We want. We want everything. And then we want more. Even some of our best intentions can destroy others. The Paw itself is not evil. It is an object, nothing more. Our definition, our understanding stems from the things we want, the things we need, and in turning from the righteous path we push the light from our minds. When the darkness seeps in, our objects become what we become.
We live by simple rules and virtues. Treat others as you wish to be treated. Patience is a virtue.
Patience. Someone once told me that in life we make many choices. That it is presented by doors and every choice we make is symbologic of a door waiting to be opened or closed. When we make a choice, we choose only one of those doors and we lock the other(s). In some cases we have many choices but one or more doors is locked. These doors appear more than once and if you force that door opened, you break the lock. You ruin the doors after it becuase you have broken in and changed everything. The path becomes twisted and distorted due to impatience and cannot be fixed without a lot of work. Once the door is broken, forced opened, it cannot be traveled through again. In this idea, when results are rushed life changes accordingly to your choices. Reminiscent of the Monkey's Paw there is but one idea. If you make a choice (wish) it will affect you and everything you do afterwards. The White's have everything they wanted. Mr. White was influence by a fancy of paying of the house - which, for anyone would be fantastic, I'm sure. The problem is that when a job or task is rushed, rarely is it done correctly.
Mr. White took the paw from his pocket and eyed it dubiously. "I don't know what to wish for, and that's a fact," he said slowly. "It seems to me I've got all I want."
"If you only cleared the house, you'd be quite happy, wouldn't you!" said Herbert, with his hand on his shoulder. "Well, wish for two hundred pounds, then; that'll just do it."
His father, smiling shamefacedly at his own credulity, held up the talisman, as his son, with a solemn face, somewhat marred by a wink at his mother, sat down and struck a few impressive chords.
"I wish for two hundred pounds," said the old man distinctly.
It is this first wish that spirals them into terror and heartbreak. They get their two-hundred pounds at the cost of their son's life. When Mrs. White wishes back her son, it is a wish made by a grieving and irrational mother. Her son has been dead a week, buried, and had been scarred in the accident. Mr. White uses their final wish to send the creature away before his wife can see it, knowing it would destroy her further.
Understandably, Herbert was most likely trying to prove the paw a fake. To show that it did not mean a thing. Also, understandably, he was probably trying to help out his elderly parents as he gave them a more reasonable wish - paying off the house with two-hundred pounds versus actually wishing to be an emperor or filthy rich. His intentions, I like to belive, were made in a good nature.
Considering that his best intentions, he did in fact help his parents. On the other hand, without the wish he most likely would have lived. So, for consideration, if they had waited would everything had been okay? Would patience have been enough? Is it a matter of patience and taking things as they come? Even "good" thoughts and intentions led to an undesirable outcome. So, if we live on the righteous path and do, think, see, and speak only good thigns can we save others? Can we inspire others to do the same? We are dual creatures, light and dark. We make choices, we live with them. We don't always like them. We live and we deal with them to the best of our ability. But when darkness seeps in, it can be hard to find the light.
It may not be a patience or righteous issue at all. Perhaps we just should not mess with that which we do not understand. Perhaps our pride allows us to make choices regardless of the consequences.