Merging

On my way to work this morning I was driving round the bend from the 2 to the 5 freeway when I saw a baby coyote shivering on the divider. It was a simple sighting, but it meant a great deal to me. It made me think about the Griffith Park fire, dwindling animal habitats, and the danger an animal like that faces every day living in a world monopolized by human beings who drive lethal vehicles. Los Angeles is ruled and run by the automobile industry. We trail and cross each other all day long on the veins and arteries of this city. Sometimes we cause cardiac arrest with traffic jams clogging the flow.

When I sit in the grass at a park or the sand at the beach I can sometimes forget that I live in a stressful city and see the world through the eyes of a wild animal. The trees grow slowly, the seaweed grows quickly, the ground drinks the rain and the ocean flows in and out.

I know animals don't live entirely stress free. They have to hunt and gather their food, protect themselves from predators, and create homes for shelter and warmth. Evenso, it is all too apparent that we are infiltrating their lives and destroying what serenity they have by moving onto their turf.

I can't help but wonder if that coyote pup survived the day or its bloody remains painted the 5 freeway as an effigy of the plight of wild animals living and dying in Los Angeles. This saddens me.

Later on today when I merge onto the freeway I know that I will feel the eyes of that scared pup staring into my soul again and remember for a second that I am an animal, too. I am an animal, too.