Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Pensivivity Part 2

I have had to adjust my wardrobe and thermostat accordingly for the slight temperature increase lately, but that hasn't been all that has changed. The beautiful greenness that washed the land has browned, all the wildflowers except Queen Anne's Lace said Screw It and died, and the rain has slowed a bit. One other thing I've noticed this week is roadkill. Lots of roadkill. I've tried to come up with a reasonable and optimistic answer for this, like that in June animals are instinctively more inclined to run across busy roads, but after yesterday I fear the truth is darker than that.
I hate seeing animals killed. I have a few fundamental problems with modern hunting and so forth, but I do understand that animals are animals and they get hit by cars. This recent roadkill epidemic disturbs me because I drive over it every day on my way to school, and it's gross. Nothing says Good Morning Sunshine like a sticky bloody possum carcass. I have taken to pulling over on smaller roads to carry a turtle across if I see one attempting the journey. Yesterday, I saw a beautiful turtle in the middle of Highway 50, bigger than I've seen in a long time. I regretted that I couldn't safely dash out to rescue it. The consoling idea came to me that, large as it was, the turtle was large enough to be easily seen but small enough that anyone could miss it without putting themselves or someone else in danger.
On the way back home I saw it. That beautiful, gentle turtle had been hit and was lying in two pieces on the highway. I was wondering how it could have happened, but I couldn't push the thought out of my mind that not everyone would bother to try and miss an animal on the road. Maybe it was simple human ugliness that was causing all the roadkill. Maybe people DON'T CARE if they hit an animal in the way.
I don't want to get too deep here and I realize that the world has much bigger problems than dead turtles. But I can't help but think that to care about the big problems you need to care about the small things, too. Go out of your way to be kind to something, dammit.

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