I was sitting by a pond watching a moth struggle atop the algae bloom flourishing on the water’s surface.
I too was struggling: should I help it?
A stick floated not two inches away from the unfortunate moth toward which it helplessly fluttered, just like my do-gooder heart.
Then moth suddenly succumbed. Dead, I thought as my attention wandered elsewhere.
Generally I do not interfere with struggling creatures – let nature take its course. But, then again, my eyes wandered back to the poor creature, and – new life! New struggle! It had risin up from death to live again!
Okay, then, I’ll help. I crouched down and moved the stick, gently turning it so the moth could crawl on. Give the fighter a fighting chance.
Onto the stick it crawled, but if I let go of the stick it would submerge and take the moth with it, so now this creature was my problem. I moved the stick onto the shore.
The moth did not seem to want to get off but then a different creature, sort of like an immature crawfish, fell out from under the stick onto the ground. Now it was my responsibility too!
I got the crawfishy fellow back into the pond and wondered how many other creatures I might have unhoused with my “virtuous” actions. Yikes!
So I needed to get the stick back in the water to save god knows how many other beings might be existing there. But the moth would not move off despite my gentle prodding. It just walked further up and around on the stick.
Finally it fell off the stick and collapsed onto a stone. Alas, the moth has not moved again in the time it has taken me to write this. Expired?
Should we take time to help fellow creatures in distress? A bird with a broken wing? A lizard being played to death by a kitty?
I think for the most part, not – unless the human landscape has caused its distress.
This doesn’t mean we should avoid stepping on an ant to the point of staying in bed all day. It does mean we should respect all sentience in all beings.