Tiny Grass

I was driving with my husband and kids yesterday, on our way to our regular Unschooler’s Support Group, when a car coming in the opposite direction hit and killed a deer. I saw it all so vividly. Because it was an oncoming car, probably less than thirty feet from us, I saw it in great detail. The car in front of us was hit by some shrapnel from the impact, but otherwise everyone was OK. But the experience was really horrifying to me. I’ve been really lucky in my driving so far in that I have never hit an animal other than a suspected frog. I actually came really close to hitting a deer last year, but it escaped with inches to spare. That incident was scary and adrenaline producing, but not horrifying. Yesterday’s incident was terrible, and I keep replaying it. I see this beautiful animal leaping high in the air across the road, then one big clunk and it is on the ground and motionless, dead as a doornail.  One thing that I am thankful for - M and J did not see it.  M was actually in a prime position to see it all, but happened to not be looking.  I’m a big girl, and I’m sure I’ll get over this.  But this all happened on a beautiful mountain road near a state park.  I keep wondering how it is that we invaded the wilderness with these big cars.  As we glided past the impact area, I saw that a fawn had also been killed that day, and lay on the street maybe 20 feet further on the road.  I’m sad.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 10:10 am and is filed under reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.