The step further (putting the cart away) also puts a person out of a job.

Morality is anything but simple. Great thinkers have agonized over these things for centuries. It’s good to continue their work and continue to roll these things around in your mind.

A lady once owned a parrot. She loved this parrot a great deal. She would watch the parrot eat his favorite seeds and watch as he struggled to shell them and extract the seed inside.

She thought to herself, “I hate that he has to struggle to eat. It’s not right, and I love him.” So, the lady went online and found him some pre-shelled seeds and began to feed her parrot those.

The parrot really seemed to enjoy the shelled seeds, and the woman who owned the parrot enjoyed watching him eat so much more easily.

But over time, she began to notice something alarming! Her parrot was eating less and less, and eventually stopped all together! He didn’t act right, and did not talk or preen.

She rushed her parrot to the vet, and begged them to help her beloved bird. The vet gave the bird a thorough examination and ran tests, and then asked, “what are you feeding your bird?”

The lady explained all about how she had switched the bird to shelled seeds so he could eat easier, because she didn’t feel like it was right for him to struggle.

The vet shook their head slowly, and sighed. “Birds beaks never stop growing. They’re like fingernails. When your bird fights to wheel his food, it wears the beak down and keeps it the appropriate length. Without that struggle to eat, the birds beak has grown too long, and he has been starving to death as he can no longer get the food in his mouth.”

The vet in this story was able to file the bird’s beak down and restore him to health.

But the moral of the story has always stuck with me. Sometimes, helping isn’t helping, and even the best of intentions can cause harm if done thoughtlessly or in ignorance.