"It has been said that I speak of natural selection as an active power or Diety." (Darwin 340). Natural selection. By what means does it play in this inhumane world? I say inhumane because today I saw a gruesome act of cruelty carried out by man towards one of Nature's creations. As I sit in unity with Waller Creek, the sounds of the water's current bring peaceful music to my ears. Waller Creek portrays a picturesque image of natural beauty in the heart of our campus. As I sit and think about what to write, I became more aware and attached to my surroundings. Peace is felt everywhere and all I want to do is rest until the day ends. Unfortunately today, my meditation was interrupted by a UT employee working on the fence line for the purpose of preventing debris from falling into the creek. I ignored him completely when all of a sudden, I heard a thumping sound followed by a crack, and then repetition of thumps. When I twitched my eye toward the direction of the thumping sounds, I saw the fence dude beating the ground with a stick for some unknown reason. He kept beating the ground at something and stopped when he slammed his foot on it. I was curious as to what this fellow was doing until I finally realized he had done something terrible: he had killed Bob.
Who the heck is Bob? Bob was a snake that went about his usual day and unfortunately, today was not his lucky day. Bob was a snake that met his destination painfully. Bob was a snake that had his skull smashed into pieces by the sole of a human foot. Bob was a snake that had his flesh torn open by repetitive beatings which he did not deserve. Bob was a snake that fought back defenselessly against the mighty Goliath who took his life in a merciless manner. With all the beatings and stompings poor little Bob took, he still never allowed death to defeat him. He fought until the end like a brave soldier dying helplessly in the middle of a battlefield. When I saw him twitching his head back and forth, I immediately ran to him hoping, he would survive. Sadly enough, my little reptilian friend was severely wounded with half his body torn apart along with blood continually spurting out like a fountain. He was suffering dramatically and all I wanted to do was save him from death. "Voices in me said, if you were a man, you would take a stick and break him now and finish him off." (Lawrence, 114). I was a coward to obey my conscious thoughts. As I stared helplessly, Bob looked directly into my eyes and asked for death but death was something I wasn't prepared to give him. "Was it cowardice that I dared not kill him?" (Lawrence, 114). To be honest, I didn't have the guts to inhumanely end his life.
I continually stood and hoped for a miracle but, I knew I had to immediately do something. My intuition told me to seek help and save him from misery. Quickly I went to Dr. Bump for advice on what to do and he gave me the one response I didn't want to hear: "Did you kill it to put it out of its misery?" (Bump). I refused again to commit a hideous act. Instead, I returned with several executioners to end the life of Bob. His misery was finally put to rest when a rock came smashing down, crushing every bone and damaging every nerve left of him. His body gave a final last jump as every nerve fiber generated their last action potential. It was an unforgetable tragic moment for everyone who witnessed the execution. Poor Bob. He didn't deserve to die that day.
Today's experience made me think about the dichotomies between nature and man. "We tend to ignore everything between the two opposite poles and we fail to recognize the dependency of each pole on the other." (Bump, 346). This quote hits the nail right on the spot. Day by day, I see humans drifting themselves farther away from being unified with nature. I see more of an antagonistic relationship between man and animal. We live and survive on their expenditures and we show no mercy to them when getting the job done; just how the fence guy mercilessly took Bob's life away to get his job done. What we don't realize is that we wouldn't be here if it weren't for the thousands of cows that die every day for our dinner or the millions of chickens having to lay eggs for our breakfast. Ironically, we need them more than they need us. In a sense Alan Watts would put it as, "we [humans] have lacked the real humulity of recognizing that we are members of the biosphere, the 'harmony of contained conflicts' in which we cannot exist at all without the cooperation of plants, insects, fish, cattle, and bacteria."(Watts, 357). On November 13, 2000 Bob's tragic death became a message of the cruel oppression that burdens the mind of humans everyday. We should rethink before we act, especially when it comes to killing nature.
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