Justified

I witnessed two murders yesterday. One near my house. The other down at the lakefront. I think both can be classified as justified. They were both the result of creatures just making an honest living.

The murder near the house involved a juvenile cat-faced spider. I happened by the spider’s web just as a hapless fly smacked into, and stuck to, a couple of strands. The spider instantly flung itself upon the fly and, with the dexterity and speed of a pastry chef, wrapped its prey into the silky spider equivalent of an apple turnover.

Later, while mowing the grass at the lakefront, a flash of motion caught my eye. When I swung my attention in that direction, I witnessed, no more than fifty feet from me, an osprey plunge into the shallow water just offshore. The bird emerged from the showy splash of water clutching a keeper-sized walleye. With the fish in its talons, the bird flapped mightily to regain its place in the air above the water before churning off just above the surface of the lake toward the far side.

I try not to anthropomorphize such things. These are not human events, even though I witnessed them. And I know most of us feel nothing in particular when buying steaks and hamburger in pretty little packets, but behind those packages is an impersonal, cold, automated slaughterhouse into which live cattle plodded before being dispatched and converted into “product.”

The spider and raptor were simply making an honest living in broad daylight.

—Mitchell Hegman