Wednesday, June 18, 2008
This post is profound and sobering:
One day last winter, I pulled on my boots, buttoned up my coat and went out into the snow to fill the birdfeeder. We kept the seed in a large bucket in the garage and when I went to scoop some out to carry to the feeder, I noticed that the supply was running low. It was dark in the garage and even darker in the bottom of the bucket. I tipped the bucket a little and was startled to hear a faint skittering noise inside. I looked in...a brown field mouse was trapped down at the bottom of the bucket! My first surprised thought was "eek!", quickly followed by "awwww, cute! mousie!" And as I squatted down next to the bucket to get a better look at my new furry friend...
...the mouse growled at me.
It was a small sound, barely audible, and if the world hadn't been so hushed and muffled under its thick blanket of snow, I might not have heard it. I went very still, holding my breath - I heard it again.
...
Not too long ago, Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina ran an emergency response drill. A campus police officer posing as a gunman burst into a classroom, where he proceeded to hold the students hostage and terrorize them with a fake gun for 10 minutes. Not one of the students fought back. Not one thought to pick up a chair or a desk, or even a book, to defend themselves. They all lined up against a wall and passively waited for death.
One of the students said, "I was prepared to die at that moment." Several students say they considered leaping from a window.
My mouse had more courage than this. Against insurmountable odds, it growled at me and prepared to fight, even to its death. The college students who meekly bared their throats to those who wanted to rip them out are dead already - they just don't know it.
The will to live is life.
How very sad for the human race, that we're raising generations of people who have no will to live. This is what we get for trying to turn the world into a child-safe environment with padded walls and safety nets everywhere: people -- ADULTS -- utterly incapable of functioning in a life-or-death crisis, and simply giving up, mere sheep for the slaughter.
That euphemism, by the way, has more meaning for me now. While in Australia, I witnessed a sheep being slaughtered. The most disturbing part of the whole thing was how calm the sheep was. It wiggled a bit while being moved into position, but only because it couldn't find its balance. Once it had been laid down, it stopped struggling at all. It just laid there waiting for its throat to be cut, with the butcher's knee on its shoulder and hand on its head. I wonder if this is what the Jews had become when they were being loaded onto boxcars.
I once read the story of a soldier who'd been in a fair number of life-or-death fights. He said that weapons and training were pretty important, but in the end, victory usually goes to the one who wants it the most. This is what the trainers mean by "combat mindset".
Life is and should be a struggle. If we don't contend, challenge, defy, and wrestle, we don't live.
Posted by Tom, 6/18/2008 7:05:55 AM (Permalink). 1 Comment. Leave a comment... |