Monthly Archives: June 2017

Little Baby Deer

The aphorism for today is — it’s so late — but today’s aphorism is: “You never know, the person you think is a demon might actually just be possessed.”

This picture is fake.

 

 

I was driving down the road and there were two baby deer; they were in the middle of the road; they were wobbly on their legs; they had their spots. Their mom was standing next to them, but off the road, on the side; it felt like this was a lesson she was teaching them; woodland creatures are very strict teachers; mom might have been thinking something like ‘here, you two; go stand in the road; you’re either going to figure this out or I’m going to be through with you; either way I’m looking forward to the outcome.’ And the degree to which people need to get a life I suppose can be measure by how interesting or not interesting that sentence is, to them. Woodland creatures are very strict teachers.

So, these deer anyway were standing in the middle of the road, and it was late. I am not used to being up late; I was very worried about driving home, it being this late; and so I was driving carefully, slowly, and so I stopped; I didn’t hit these deer. We had a short lesson about cars; it might have been a bad one; they eventually moved out of the road.

I was driving further on and I saw another very small baby deer that was just smashed,  in the opposite lane, and there is a lesson there, which is: when you are waiting; you don’t have what you want or you are not where you want to be yet; and it doesn’t feel good, because you don’t have what you want and you are not where you want to be yet; and you are worried that you might never get there— keep in mind that not everyone is a careful as you and that is not a good thing; that the world might be a better place if everyone did approach as carefully and thoughtfully as you do.

That taking your time, to muddle through matters and wait is the right thing to do, even if it makes you late. That we don’t see, oftentimes, the aftermath of other people moving so quickly, although we do see their benefits— we see that you have more money, we see that you have whatever it is that you rushed on to get, that we waited for and never came, because we were trying to do it properly.

We see the good of fast decisions; the bad is usually hidden. We don’t see the credit card bills; we only see the clothes.

And so keep in mind, when it feels like things are going slowly, that really you are averting crisis, you are preventing pain— that little smashed deer didn’t have to be, if whoever came down that other lane had had at least as much consideration for what was going on around them as I had, they could have stopped too.

We usually don’t see the deer we don’t smash, either. No one is going to give you a prize for being careful, but not everyone is as careful as we. So I’ll give you as much of a prize as I have, right now: I swear, the world is no where as bad as you think it is, sometimes; that the people in it, not as heartless; that it and they will keep getting better, because we’ll force them to; and not by forcing each other, either, but by, ourselves, refusing to be forced.* Anyway. Little baby deer.

This picture is real.

 

“Photo” “credits” “;”

http://callofthepatriot.blogspot.com/2011/05/stupid-moments-in-tree-hugger-history.html

https://www.treehugger.com/culture/artist-hides-giants-wilds-copenhagen-luring-seekers-nature.html

 


*And perhaps even there is something big, that looks out for little creatures who stand up for even littler ones.**


**Or, as my mom says, just wait until you get to the afterlife: every single one of those squirrels you didn’t care if you ran over is going to be waiting for you there.

Having ‘advanced technology,’ apparently, means you just give up…

can you count the jobs?

…and harbor no expectations of caring, ever again.

(Apologies to IBM: they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.)