Greetings To All!
There is a song that has recently found its way into my music feed. The lyrics tell a tale of woe and undoing - a country music sad song coupled with an alternative music vibe. The singer speaks of his incessant self-demonization and all that comes with it - loss of friends, loss of perspective, loss of just about everything… except:
“Two missed calls and one last cigarette.”
To say that he is down in the dumps would be putting it mildly. His tenuous hold on life is those two missed calls and the remaining cigarette which he has yet to float to his lips. He must be thinking that the promise associated with these seemingly ephemeral elements is sufficient to keep the music going, the song of life is not quite done. Not yet anyway.
So, on with our story…
My Sunday morning commutes to my meditation group in Richmond, Virginia, have a feature associated with them that has been niggling me for a number of months now. Strangely, as this particular pattern goes, it is the number of critters that I come across who were unable to navigate safely from one side of the road to the other. On any other day that ends in “y,” I have noted far fewer such critters having unsuccessfully made the transition from left-to-right, right-to-left. And this gets me to thinking…
I know, this is probably not the most pleasant of inquiries to inhabit the mind prior to Sunday-morning meditation. Nevertheless, when it comes to patterns and seemingly inexplicable occurrences in the world around me, I am drawn to muse, as Mouse Guest will do, in just about any part of the world in which he finds himself. Notably, as you may have already surmised, “Mouse” Guest is especially concerned about the plight of fellow critters on the planet. And Saturday night appears to have some not-so-friendly aspects to it for my fellow kinswomen and kinsmen.
Thus, I have been doing a bit of reflection on the subject and have some theories that have percolated to the surface. Let’s start with one of the more obvious.
Charles City County, in particular, is a rural area with lots of farming. Farmhands tend to work Monday through Saturday, with Sundays being the only day off, for the most part. This is especially the case during the summer months as the corn, then soybeans, and finally cotton come into season. There is much work to be done in preparation for harvest, but also in the day-to-day tending of the crop - weeding, irrigation, pollination, and so forth. Farm labor is usually in bed by the time woodland creatures might venture forth at night, as first light is not that far removed from 5am in this neck of the woods.
My current conclusion on the matter is that the amount of humans attempting to travel the thoroughfares and byways of Charles City County on Sunday through Friday evenings is quite minimal, certainly reduced from the number who may be doing so on a Saturday evening, as it is the evening preceding the only day off for farmers and farmhands. This gives us something to consider.
Now, we are also aware that the skunks and possums and coons and deer do not have the same constraints as the farmers and farmhands. They need food each day of the week and likely do not select one evening over another as to which is ideal for rooting out delicacies. Thus, I have ruled out the possibility that our animal friends are selecting Saturday evening as their specified night of nocturnal reverie each week. This appears to be a human-based phenomenon and not an animal one. But, if any of you can steer me in a different direction on this matter, please be sure to do so. ;-)
As for human-related labor, I also imagine that Monday through Friday, and possibly even on Saturdays, but less likely to be the case, that members of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDoT) who are responsible for the collection of deceased animals have business hours that align with times that I have driven on County roads that have presented far less of my little furry friends. Knowing that a Sunday morning crew is not passing along the roads I am driving has proven to be another point that cannot be missed in terms of my SNRK data.
Are these two points sufficient to complete the pattern?
Well, there is one other possibility to incorporate into the mix. But let’s recap, first.
More auto traffic on Saturday nights than is typical of the other nights of the week. Check.
And, we have no clean-up crew to hasten the removal of our once-roaming woodland creatures. Check.
But, this is where our two missed calls and one last cigarette come in…
If there is just one person out there who has had a bad week, and is down on her/his luck, we might imagine said person having a bit of a nip of some Wild Turkey or Evan Williams in these here parts and that might be just enough to make the reaction time ever-so-slightly diminished. And, since I am a bit of a betting man, I am guessing that there are more than one such persons who might be feeling a pinch from the rent-man, or a rift in a relationship, or a loss of someone close - any of the things that can drag us as humans into the less-than-stellar versions of our better angels and our better hearts and minds. Is Saturday night a good night to let off some of that steam without work to call us into duty the next morning? Might we get more company for our “misery-that-ails-us” on said night?
I am guessing this is a reasonable possibility.
Thus, I am proposing we might address Saturday Night Road Kill in Charles City County, and, perhaps, in other parts of this great-big-wide-world around us, by checking in with folks on Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon as it suits you. Just a gentle check-in, see how folks are feelin’, see what has transpired that might need a little tendin’. Give them a little something more in their basket of goodness than “two missed calls and one last cigarette.”
Let them know that Mouse Guest sent you and why - You know, he’s got a thing for those little furry critters out there! ;-)
Until next time…Keep those hands on the wheel, your eyes peeled, and your wits about you…My little sisters and brothers are counting on you!
:D
Sent from my iPad
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Heart warming story. I’ll be on the lookout the next time I’m driving in farming country.
David’s sweet little story begins by observing a carelessness and pain point in the global system (the untimely death of woodland critters on the road), investigates causes for that unfortunate condition, and uses that investigation to illuminate still other pain points in the system (the cumulative anxiety of our individual human brothers and sisters), and offers an invitation to gently care for one point in the system, by calling our friends on Saturday mornings to infuse one another with just a little more lovingkindness which may then translate into a slightly decreased need to inebriate, or perhaps a need to inebriate to a lesser extent (good for the person), and then potentially to have a slightly higher threshold of awareness on the roads Saturday evenings (good for the critters.)
This is MettaCare. Caring for the system in little ways that have the potential to ripple through and create greater well-being for all.