The following post is from my friend Laura (@DruX73 on Twitter), who lives in Dorset, U.K., and is part of the G3 Radio team. Laura recently asked if I would like to write a guest post for the G3 blog, and now she’s returning the favor. Laura is known to frequent the corridors of Protagonize.com, which is where I first became acquainted with her and her husband (@DarkLiquid).

The other day I killed thousands of innocents. I slaughtered them mercilessly and efficiently. However, I am also a Gaian, and part of my belief system is the fact that all life is sacred. So with this in mind, you can see how I might feel a little guilty about my act. However, even after I had carefully weighed up all the options, genocide still seemed the better option.

You see, I had to clean the mould out of my washing machine.

Like I said, as a Gaian, I didn’t view the mould as a pest; to me it has as much right to be alive as I do. I couldn’t even claim self-defence (as with bacteria in the body), since the intent to kill was there from the outset. This was clearly pre-meditated murder.

And yet, if I didn’t kill the mould, my washing machine would have become inefficient, using more water and electricity to clean my clothes. Eventually it would have needed replacing, using up more resources as a new one is made. Not only that, it could spread to my clothes and to the other parts of my house making them become inefficient and possibly deadly to myself and my husband.

All options point to killing the mould for the greater good. But still I came back to the idea that they, though tiny and unaware, are still alive. They had a right to a place in this universe as did I, even if right then and there it seemed their place was to gum up my washing machine. I hummed and hawed over this philosophical quandary for some time, looking deep into my soul, and asking my husband for advice (incidentally, he is a nihilist and just laughed at my heart-felt dilemma).

In the end I could see no other recourse; I apologised to the mould, said a prayer, and got on with the task of genocide.