"Government, like dress, is a badge of lost innocence..." wrote Thomas Paine. Ir ead this quote in high school, in Mr. Smith's history class. Don't know why it always stuck with me, but it has. I was reminded (loosely) of this quote when a certain incident involving a cockroach took place in our home last week.
It was a big cockroach. Really big. The outside, palmetto bug kind, which are usually smaller. I think this was the Goliath of palmetto bugs. Anyway, Jeremy came to rescue Cory and I, to keep us from being carried away on the back of a bug to rival Kafka's, and of course, my little animal-lover Iain came too. Jeremy squashed the bug with his shoe and flushed him away. Iain looked startled at the sight, and then started to cry and came to me. You see, in the past, when dealing with the occasional spider or rolly polly, we have very humanely carried the visitor outside, letting him go free in the plants by the door. I haven't wanted to make Iain scared of bugs by reacting badly to them. He loves telling the stories of bugs we have rescued, pointing to the ground and saying "pide" for spider, and then pointing to the door to show where the spider went. But roaches are really fast and really gross. Even if I could catch him alive, I wouldn't want to. So this guy ended up squashed, and Iain ended up sad and a bit traumatized. In the Garden of Eden, this never would have happened.
A bit of innocence was lost.
Government, like dress and roaches killed in front of one-year-olds, is a badge of lost innocence.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment