I was driving to work yesterday and I saw a bird in the road. I knew it could fly away and I kept going forward. I felt anxious as I got closer and he still hadn’t moved out of the way, but I kept going forward. I didn’t hit the bird. It flew away so fast I didn’t see it. I kept going forward.
About a minute later I saw an older man walking on my side of the road. Normally I would move into the left lane to give a wide pass to the man so I didn’t have to worry about getting anywhere near him. But I could see a truck was coming my way in that lane so I slowed down. I started to go about half the speed I was originally going so that I could be sure not to hit the walking man while also avoiding the truck. The walking man kept coming and didn’t bother to move to the side of the road at all. But I got through him and the truck and then sped up and continued to drive to work at the speed limit.
Why didn’t I slow down for the bird, but did for the human?
I thought to myself, why didn’t I slow down for the bird but did for the human? Was it that I valued the human’s life more? No. I realized that was not the answer. I trusted the bird to move out of the way but I didn’t trust the man to move out of the way.
I trusted the bird to take personal responsibility for its life. I trust animals to take personal responsibility for their lives. But I don’t automatically trust humans to take personal responsibility for their lives. I’ve had a lifetime of seeing how humans neglect to take care of themselves and instead demand someone else move out of the way for them, or give up their money in the form of tax to feed them, etc.
Why should I believe that they would take personal responsibility for their lives? This man didn’t. He didn’t even move to the side of the road or act like he saw me coming at all.
I wasn’t requiring him to do something. And I was willing to slow down (as we’re supposed to while driving). But I was still emotionally let down to see that he wouldn’t bother to move to the side of the road. He didn’t acknowledge me coming at him in any way.
When I go walking on the road, I will always move to the grassy area to get out of the way of oncoming traffic so they know I saw them and I take personal responsibility for my life. He acted as if he didn’t see me at all and made no changes to his walk.
The feeling I got from that experience was that the man had placed all of the responsibility for keeping himself safe onto me and he was willing to take none for himself. This was emotionally jarring after watching the bird take 100% personal responsibility for itself.
Because humans can talk and attempt to require us to act differently so that they feel safer, they responsibility shift. They will place the responsibility to keep them feeling safe from themselves onto other humans. Because animals, like birds, cannot talk to us and ask or demand that we shoulder some of that responsibility, they take 100% responsibility for their lives.
If there ever comes a time when we cannot talk to each other (like a true Tower of Babel moment) or if the phone and internet go out, humans would once again take personal responsibility for their lives. But, until then, I think there will always be some who assume you must shoulder some or all of their so-called “burden” to keep them safe.
Do you trust humans to take personal responsibility for their lives or have you seen others give that up and require you to take on more responsibility for their lives than they do?
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Trusting Animals (Not Humans) To Take Personal Responsibility