I'm Bummed

On the way home today, I passed by a squirrel lying in the road. It had been hit by a car and its back was broken. It was still alive and trying fruitlessly to get up and run away. As I approached in my car, it pulled the top of its body up as far as it could, then flopped helplessly back down onto the hot pavement. If it is not dead already it soon will be. The experience has left me feeling very depressed.

The plight of that poor squirrel reminds me that life is a struggle that we ultimately lose. We will all die. Some deaths will be peaceful, some horrific, some heroic. If you believe in an afterlife, that softens the blow of the end of this physical existence. In the case of the squirrel, its death was imminent and preceded by suffering. I can only hope it died as quickly as possible.

I suppose I feel guilty. I didn't stop to at least get him out of the road and into some cool grass where he could pass on in relative comfort. I was afraid of getting bitten and of germs. These are valid reasons, but they seem so selfish in light of the cost to the squirrel. I also feel guilty because I'm human and drive a car and it is only a matter of time before a small animal runs out in front of me and I can't avoid hitting it. It has happened before and all my self control became focused on not vomiting.

Some people say that the animals should stay out of the road. As if humans and cars are there by divine right and the animals somehow deserve what they get. Some people actually go out of their way to hit animals crossing the road. This makes me sick and furious. It is this attitude that is destroying the environment, making countless species extinct, and will ultimately bring about the destruction of the human race. God will not save us from selfish consumerism.

I'm a hypocrite though. I eat meat. I eat food that is produced in a destructive manner. I drive a car many miles every day. I have good intentions, but we all know what the road to hell is paved with. And my grammar is terrible in this paragraph. Please forgive me.