https://www.amazon.com/My-Critter-Catcher-Spider-Insect/dp/B0192MB5RS
Saturday, February 9, 2019
A poor little creature killed by savages
It was a Thursday night (I think) and I was checking Snapchat. A couple snaps had popped up from a group chat that I am in with three of my friends. I will keep the names anonymous, but I am going to reveal a cruel and horribly true story of what I saw on those snaps. One of these said friends was staying at the other friend's house when he discovered a small, brown lizard searching for a quick meal in the corner to bring back to his loving lizard family who was living outside. He had traveled inside following a group of smaller insects he hoped that he could sneak up on by surprise. The lizard spotted a spider and jumped up on the shower and was about to pounce on it, when he was smacked. His body whipped across the room. He had died almost instantly from the impact. The poor lizard was only minding his own business trying to support his lizard family. He knew that trespassing on my friend's home would be a big risk. The daddy lizard had been brutally murdered by my friend. Many humans do not know what it is like to be a bug, or even a small creature like a lizard. They don'y know how it feels to be the little guy surrounded by enormous objects and people. They have no clue what being on the bottom of the food chain is like. The friend acted out of cowardice and disgust and killed that lizard simply because he was an outsider who was not supposed to be in the nice, clean bathroom. Entering the home of my friend uninvited proved to be costly for the lizard. When I saw the videos and photos on snapchat of the little lizard, I felt sympathy and the question we were asked in class about what being a bug would be like came to my mind. I could not help feeling sorry for the small creature because his life was ended just because someone else wanted it over. If you are scared to touch live animals to put them back outside, shame on you. But if you would like to pick them up with out hurting them or touching them to bring them outside, check out this link!!!! I forgot where I saw this but this came to mind when I heard about the lizard haha.
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6 comments:
Dang, this post has really made me rethink about blindly killing any foreign creature that I come across...I can say without a doubt that I too have sympathy for the lizard while I was reading the blog post. Recently, without even realizing it, I actually have been more actively avoiding to just kill bugs or lizards I see believe it or not. I would say I used to be pretty brutal with bugs, so much so that if I had a full can of bug spray, I'd end up with only half a can left just for killing one or a just a few bugs. Or, sometimes I'd straight up throw whole textbooks at them if they are on a wall and end up with carnage on the wall. Now though I sorta have a set rule when it comes to bugs...if they are just passing through and don't bother me then that's cool but if they keep bothering me or keep lingering around me then sorry gotta end you, can't be having you crawling on me or flying on my food. Same goes for lizards. If I were a bug, I'd at least appreciate someone with this kind of thinking haha.
That was so sad to read, Ben! As a disclaimer, I was NOT one of the friends in this snapchat group.
For me, the most significant aspect of The Metamorphosis is Gregor's seemingly sudden lack of importance when he turned into a beetle. As a human, Gregor was the family's only source of income. In other words, he was the breadwinner. Although Gregor most likely did not like his job or even his life, he was fulfilled by providing for his family. However, when Gregor transformed into a bug, he faded into obscurity, and was deemed "unimportant" like any creature low on the food chain, such as lizards. He never left his room and avoided being seen the few times someone entered his room. In addition, his father returned to work and it appeared that the family just moved on without him.
*I have not yet read Part III while making this comment.*
Aw no, that is so sad! It's so strange to think about how many world perspectives exist even just on this planet. I mean, bugs see such a larger world, but are treated as such a tiny piece of it. Humans tend to think they have power over the world, and see themselves as quite important in it. These different perspectives is something I think about sometimes while watching movies where, for example, aliens invade Earth or something. They could have a totally different view of life and of their place, or our place, in the universe; they might just treat us as many people treat bugs, but we'd call them evil. This also reminds me of a commercial I saw for a new show on Netflix; it is about astronauts conveying how seeing the Earth from a great distance changed their feelings about life and the universe. It seems to be centered around loving the Earth and appreciating its strange beauty; everything, no matter how small, has its own perspective and its life is important! I'm guilty of killing bugs that scare me also, but I definitely scoop up little guys that make their way into the house at put them outside when possible, and I will aim to do it more.
As a proponent of free speech, honesty, and integrity in writing, I can not sit back idly upon reading this “story.”
I am the friend whose house is mentioned and want to make it known to the world that Bone has grossly embellished the events of the night in question. I will now attempt to narrate said night as truthfully and as in as much detail as possible:
It was Wednesday, February 6—the night before Senior Teacher Day—and my friends Cole Russell and Brenan Kronenberg were at my house. It was approximately 10:45 PM when Mr. Kronenberg excused himself from the game of Cards Against Humanity we were currently engaged in and descended my back staircase towards the front downstairs restroom in my house. Roughly two minutes later (circa 10:47 PM), I received a Snapchat notification on my phone. Curious, I opened the application only to see that Mr. Kronenberg had sent a picture into the group chat which Bone has mentioned. The group chat goes by the name “We Like Paint Jobs” (referring to when cars have sick paint jobs) and its members include myself, Bone, Kronenberg, and Jack Fleishmann. In order to elicit its content, using my right index finger I tapped the notification with medium-high pressure. It was an image—set to be viewed for only six seconds—that read “Ewww Bennett, your house is disgusting. You have lizards.” Sure enough, front and center on my bathroom floor was a lizard. While I myself fret at the thought of touching lizards, I do cherish their lives and would never purposely harm one. However, I also cherish the reputation of cleanliness my house has gained over the years, so I was torn between sending a radical response urging Mr. Kronenberg to kill the lizard at once or to let it continue living happily in my bathroom. Although I now realize the simple solution to this quandary would have been to request Mr. Kronenberg safely secure the lizard and release him outside upon completion of his bathroom use, no such thoughts crossed my mind in the heat of the moment, and I hastily responded with a picture of my shocked face reading “HOLY C***, kill it!!” I regret having said these words, but I promised I would leave no details untouched. Although my response urged brutatily unto the innocent lizard, Mr. Bone’s account of the subsequent content in the “We Like Paint Jobs” group chat is entirely factually inaccurate. The lizard was never once “smacked” nor was his body ever “whipped across the room.” I am positive of this because, after finishing up in the bathroom, Mr. Kronenberg returned to me and Cole, lizard in hand, in the media room (at which point we had moved onto talking about our favorite movie “Cube”) at roughly 10:55 PM and asked that we follow him outside so that he may properly and harmlessly dispose of the lizard. Goaded by our mutual love for lizards, the three of us walked down the stairs, executed a 180 degree turn to position ourselves towards the door leading into my garage, opened the door, pressed the button that opens the large exterior garage door, closed the first door behind us so that my dogs would not escape, and let the moonlight pull us to the lizard’s eventual salvation. It was a chilly night, and none of us were properly dressed for the occasion. The clear night sky cast a romantic light onto the scene and, out of a desire for both warmth and brotherhood, the three of us formed a circle and clasped hands. Crickets churping and wind blowing, we looked into one another’s eyes and bowed our heads. We paused for a moment, allowing ourselves to feel an even greater sense of brotherhood. We slowly raised our heads and again locked eyes. There was not a dry eye to be seen. At this point, Mr. Russell let out a beautiful prayer. He thanked God for blessing Earth with reptiles as delicate as lizards and for giving us the opportunity to save this very lizard’s life.
The culmination of the prayer finally meant the release of the lizard, and Mr. Kronenberg bent down, opened his fist and wished the little guy away. The lizard stayed put onto his hand—a sign of appreciation that we had saved his life. With his opposite hand, Mr. Kronenberg gently tapped the lizard. The lizard obeyed and scurried accross my brick driveway, never to be seen again. Sad to see our friend go, the three of us, all still on the verge of tears, embraced and headed back upstairs. It was truly a thing of beauty.
While Mr. Bone has tried to paint us as brutal creatures who murdered a bug. We in fact did the exact opposite. We came together to save the bug. This goes to show that, although Kafka chooses Gregor to change into a bug because Kafka himself believes that humanity views bugs as worthless creatures, not all humans agree. Many bugs are beautiful creatures that sustain life on Earth—creatures that deserve to be saved like we saved the lizard that fateful night. This goes to show that traditional readings of the Metamorphosis may not be entirely accurate, as not everybody views bugs in such a negative light!
(p.s. this post is a little late because it was apparently too long to post as one comment and did not go through when I pressed publish at 11:38 PM)
Ben, your account of these events is truly devastating, especially when reading of the little lizard family that will now starve due to the death of the father. Fictional or otherwise, it leads us to question the impact of our actions towards beings that are seemingly insignificant. We often react strongly against these little creatures despite the fact that they are usually doing nothing to pose a threat to us. Furthermore, it would be only a minor inconvenience to put these critters outside.
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