Tuesday June 12, 2007

Welcome to Disturbia - Population Two ... er, One.

Warning – The following story may not be suitable for the small.

This morning on my way to work I was confronted with the bitter reality of both, my coffee before I had put sugar in it, and of life and death. I was driving away from the coffee shop with my coffee and a slice of lemon pound cake and was preparing myself for the day ahead. In front of me there was a minivan driving at about 20-25 mph. From the left side of the road darts a furry tree rat (squirrel). I have often pondered what spurs on squirrels (and deer) to decide that the best time to cross the road is when a car is approaching. Perhaps it is due to their shortened life span and lack of an eternal soul that gives them a small view of the value of life. Life’s short – run out in front of cars. Perhaps squirrels have very little self esteem and cannot turn down a dare and risk injuring their reputation. I don’t think that we will ever know why squirrels do what they do…. they’re squirrely that way. Anyway, this squirrel runs out towards the minivan… does that little juke move where it looks like he’s not sure he can make it and then he thinks he can and…. he can’t. That’s right, the wheel rolls right over him, but the suspension on these new mini vans is so good that the unsuspecting squirrelicidal minivan driver was none the wiser. But not me, ... I was the wiser and disturbed-er. But…. it got worse.

In the time that it took for me to overtake and overpass the victim I had enough time to see that while nearly all of him had been “affected” by the tire, his head, upper body and left leg had not been. And then I saw him put his little left foot down on the ground and try to push himself up ( I imagined him looking at me while mouthing “help me” as he did this).

So… I found myself realizing three things. One, that was probably one of the most disturbing things I’d ever seen (I nearly threw up a couple times). Two, I was a little unhappy that my seemingly wonderful start to a day was ruined by this image… but then I thought that maybe I was being a little self-centered as my day had not been nearly as inconvenienced as the squirrel’s. Three, I should have run him over the rest of the way. It was the right thing to do and I failed him.