©Allen Merritt (2015)
Once
upon a time there was a little blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy who visited the San
Antonio Zoo with his parents. He rode an elephant, swaying from left to right
so much he felt as if he would fall off. It was the same feeling he would
identify with several years later while sail boating in Boston Harbor. He believed
the boat would capsize due to the extreme leaning toward the water. He never
fell off nor capsized proving his excitements coupled with fear were in effect
not correlated with actuality.
Anyway,
following the elephant ride the little boy went into the reptile building. He made
his way around the walls peeking inside every aquarium recessed into the walls.
They were filled with small frogs, snakes, lizards, salamanders and more.
Inch
by inch the little boy made his way around the room. Suddenly, the boy stepped
backwards until he was up against something. It was an extra large aquarium
which took up the entire center of the room. When the little boy turned around he
found himself up against the glass face to face with a 25 foot boa constrictor
whose mouth was wide open at the little boys head ready to swallow him whole
and eat the boy as a meal. The little boy screamed bloody murder before running
maniacally out of the building.
That
little boy was me. Needless-to-say; I’ve never appreciated snakes as a result
of that experience. I’ve always been freaked out by them for obvious reasons.
I’ve seen snakes feeding on large prey on the internet. I’ve watched a show where
a man dared to feed himself to an anaconda. I’ve sat in the woods near Memphis and
noticed a large blue snake slithering around me. I’ve read many stories about
how various snakes are taking over the everglades and destroying the ecosystem.
I know they’re out there, but I do not like them. This has impacted my life
both metaphorically and in general.
For
example, I remember filling out on application for the television show Fear Factor. The application listed all types
of things one could possibly fear and, of course, snakes were one of them.
Facing a fear for the sake of a reality show was not worth the risk.
Metaphorically,
snakes generally are representative of the negative, dangerous and not so good.
Take a look at the biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. I
think you have to love snakes to find real purpose for them. Some say they’re
good for our ecosystems to control certain animal populations and help prevent
spread of various diseases which threaten humans and plants.¹
In
considering how the ideology of snakes real or imagined affects our lives, I
remembered my own story mentioned above. It brought me to consider ways
positivity can render happier solutions.
I
recognize there are people who represent "snakes" in our world. They are
negative, dangerous and serve no purpose. This is the hard part, because many
people tend to hold on to things longer than they should despite intuitively
knowing something is not right and fails to provide any measurable benefit.
Coming to terms with “snakes” attached to our daily routine that cause us fear,
anger, misery and so on, means discovering how we have choices to change our
existence, turn it around and move on. It may simply mean, walking away. It may
mean choosing not to encourage or condone something while not interfering with
another person’s choices.
The
lesson here for me in contemplating snakes is more about how I don’t have to be
afraid all the time just because there are “snakes” in the world. It helps me
understand I don’t need to purposefully put myself in a position to face my
fears all the time. Taking unnecessary risks is not the same as taking a leap
of faith risk to fulfill a desired accomplishment. Often times, things change
for the better on their own and snakes move on and weed themselves out of your
life. I have seen that happen more than once. However, keeping life on a
positive note may require you to weed them out yourself. With that in mind, I’d
like to celebrate and encourage our ability to rid, purge and take out
the garbage; to not let those "sneaky snakes" become a problem.
In closing, here’s
a song by Jim Stafford featuring Dolly Pardon called Spiders and Snakes.
Have
fun. Enjoy and don’t let the spiders, snakes or bed bugs bite!
Cheers!
https://www.chetenn.org/home/blog/2014/07/04/what-purpose-do-snakes-serve
(Viewed 5/30/2015)¹
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