Seven-Day Practical Faith Blog: Seagull Eggs and the Golden Rule

While on an Alaskan cruise this summer, I heard a story from an Alaskan native of the Tlingit tribe that I will use to talk about our faith and how to put the Golden Rule into practice.

The Tlingit speaker told about a breakthrough in the tribe's relationship with the National Park Service. Barred from harvesting on what the tribe considered its own land, they negotiated with the NPS to collect seagull eggs for just one day.

The speaker was a teen at the time and was one of two people allowed to harvest seagull eggs. But he didn't know how, so he asked his grandfather how to do it.

His grandfather taught that seagulls always lay one to three eggs, and the teen should collect them according to this rule learned over the tribe's centuries of gathering eggs.

If there is one egg in the nest, take it. The seagull mother will lay another.

If there are two eggs in the nest, take one. The mother will lay a third egg.

If there are three eggs in the nest, take none. If all her eggs disappear, the seagull mother will become discouraged and never lay an egg again.

While this is a wise, wonderful story of working in harmony with nature, I feel it can serve as an analogy for the way we treat people.

Jesus issued the Golden Rule in Matthew 7:12 (NIV), "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."

Looking at the Golden Rule on the surface, it seems like we can't go wrong if we just do to others from our point of view of what makes sense. But I feel there is a deeper meaning.

How do I want to be treated if you help me? While any help is useful, ideally I want to be treated according to MY preferences, not YOUR preferences. I would want you to ask for my viewpoint or for you to have the wisdom and experience of discerning my preferences.

We can go down wrong paths when we prescribe for others from our viewpoint. But I believe this verse tells us to consider their point of view when we interact with them.

If the Tlingit people only used their viewpoint when harvesting seagull eggs, they would take all the eggs, and along the way, they would destroy their opportunity for future eggs from some seagulls. They are wise to consider the seagull's perspective in their harmonious interaction.

Similarly, when we interact with others, we should consider the other person's perspective to achieve harmonious interaction. The old saying, "Walk a mile in another person's shoes," also applies here.

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