Trail Hazards

Whilst riding to work I came across an idyllic scene on the Humber trail: an older couple were feeding a chipmunk in the middle of the trail ahead of me. Now squirrels are nasty, bullying creatures, but I've never found chipmunks to be anything but charming. This is admittedly probably attributable to Disney's Chip an' Dale, but I digress. I slowed down my bicycle to smile at the couple as I passed them, and the chipmunk darted under my tires as I passed. Not through... under. Babump-babump. I was completely nauseated. The woman loudly burst into tears, and cowardly or not, I kept riding. I simply couldn't see a positive interaction happening, and I felt sick enough without facing blame. The man yelled after me, "You didn't have to kill it!" This cemented for me the futility of stopping.

Blame, though, is kind of interesting. I'm generally uninterested in blame and punishment and vengeance, looking more to solutions and preventative measures. Their first response, clearly, was to blame me. My first response was to feel ill, but my second response, upon feeling their blame, was to try to turn around the blame. After all, wasn't it really their fault? What were they thinking, feeding the chipmunk in the middle of the paved trail? My third response was to recognize that a panicky chipmunk had made a poor choice, and that none of the humans had been acting from villainy.

Next time, though, I might just stop my bike well clear of the chipmunk and walk for a while...