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As I
walked away, I started to think of just how dangerous the
encounter hadn't been. We had kept our
distance, and we had been careful not to provoke the snake
into feeling that it had to defend itself. We had
pretty carefully looked at the situation and determined
the limits of what we could do--the thick branches made it
impossible for the snake to strike us, so we were
completely safe where we were standing. We had a
wide-open space behind us, so if the snake did start
coming after us (highly unlikely--snakes prefer to
avoid confrontation!), we had plenty of time and space to
move very far away very quickly. We also had respect
for the animal, and we only wanted to see it, not to
bother it.
And I
thought of what kinds of actions would have made our
encounter dangerous or even tragic. If we had tried
to get closer or tried to improve our view by moving
branches, we would have given the snake the wrong message,
and the snake could have struck out in defense. If
we had tried to provoke the snake into moving or rattling
more by poking it with a stick or throwing rocks at it, we
also could have provoked a dangerous response--or at the
very least caused it to leave, thus ruining our chance to
share some time with it.
And I
could see very clearly just how similar this situation was
to the rest of our lives--how much of what happens to us
in life is the direct result of actions that we decide to
take, words we decide to say, or precautions that we
decide aren't necessary? How many of the
"bad" things that happen to us are the result of
our own silliness or carelessness or ignorance?
That
rattlesnake would have caused us harm only if we would
have provoked it or if we would have done something silly
that seemed to be provocation. People we know
react very often to things that seem to be
something that they see as threatening, and their
reactions can be very harmful to us if we aren't
careful. But if we are careful, if we do look at the
situation and make educated decisions about what actions
we should or should not take, then we can keep ourselves
out of harm's way.
I know
some people who wouldn't have gone to look at the snake
because they would have thought it was "too
dangerous." They never would have learned that
it wasn't dangerous at all, as long as we followed our
common sense and acted very carefully. Rattlesnakes
are gentle creatures who prefer to avoid confrontation,
but who will defend themselves when provoked; but then,
how many of us aren't willing to do the same thing when
someone provokes us?
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