I killed a humming bird. I was 13 years old. I had my bee-bee hand gun and shooting oranges off of trees like "Angel Eyes" Clint Eastwood...well...kinda like it. No Spaghetti Western sound effects or Confederate gold to be gotten. Then it came, a ruby throated hummingbird right in front of my orange tree. I slowly raised my gun, aimed with my left eye, squeezed the trigger...and POW! Or rather "pip".
This was the slow-motion portion of the shot. I hit the hummingbird square in the throat. It's neck flopped down sideways and fell dead immediately.
This image runs through my mind to this day. I have never forgotten one of the worst feelings of my life. I say I'm sorry to that little bird every time I think about this. I ask for forgiveness. I was a stupid, stupid child. Killing a life needlessly, without purpose except to see if I could do it.
I am not a natural born killer. Yet, I have taken part in many deaths for my hunger. Someone else doing the dirty work. Not I. I try to think about the animal before I eat it. I respectfully acknowledge it's life for my life.
I am not a vegetarian. I know that something must die for me to live. That is the price of life. You can place more value on an animal's life than a plant, but life is life in my book.
The important thing is to remember and to be humbled by the life that was lost to maintain my own...to be grateful. The inexcusable is needless death like my poor hummingbird. I will never ever forget...
Sent from the Black Forest.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I feel you, I too killed a humingbird one day with an airsoft just for the sake of "to see if I can do it".'I am 18 and unlike you, I am not a child anymore, and yet I killed the poor creature. I shall make it so it's death was not in vain, and that I learn the lesson to never kill ANYTHING for no purpose except for food, for self-defense, and for pest control.
ReplyDelete