Today, I caused a death. It was a slow, painful watery death. The death of an ant. As I was showering, I took the loofah. Clinging to the loofah, I was this red ant. Without a second thought, I vigorously shook the loofah. Said ant fell down. I thought it would crawl away to safety. As I stood there watching, water was also flowing. It was one of those moments when you know you can and you must do something, but inaction and inertia force you to remain inert.
The ant tried to move away. In vain. The stream of water from my shower was a force too much for its little body to bear. Its feeble legs beat against the current. And then it was still. I stood there for a while watching the little body. Then some more water. And it was gone. Into the drain. I wondered about its life. Did it think that it had a minute to live only when it landed on my loofah? Could I have saved the ant in any way? Yes. I know I could have. Why did I then, allow it to die? What can I learn from this? That inaction is the greatest bane to life. It’s nice to relax when we have too much to do, but sometimes we think that really it’s just an ant. Why bother so much? Me? I care for the little things. I really do. Rest in peace my little ant. I am sorry, may we meet again sometime. In another life where waters don’t rage in a small bathroom.
