A Snail's Pace

We were finishing up our morning walk when there beneath our feet we saw a snail on the sidewalk…getting up the nerve to cross the street. As I looked down from up above I felt somewhat conflicted for my world is so far-reaching and the snail’s so restricted. I felt bad but then I thought perhaps my thinking is defective for, when it comes to a snail’s world, I imagine the joy’s in the perspective. From where the snail crawls…bringing his shell for safe refuge I imagine he…like me, thinks his world is pretty huge. And there’s something to be said for a life with little worry… where you find your food along the ground and you’re never in a hurry. I thought I would help this snail…that the normal laws of nature we’d defy So I picked him up and took him across the street… in a way I showed him how to fly. I set him down in the grass where he now had more time to eat or dance or play… “No need to thank me Mr. Snail.” I said as we happily walked away. I was feeling pretty good about myself…this I must concede even though helping a snail cross the road…is but a minuscule good deed. “What if that snail had already crossed the road?” Deborah asked “What if you threw off the day he had planned by picking him up and putting him back in the place where he began?” Of course she was correct… for I surely had no way of knowing If, when we first saw Mr. Snail He was coming or he was going…. But I have learned my lesson… even though with this snail I couldn’t atone… The next time I see a snail beneath my feet… I’ll leave well enough alone.