i murdered a Charismatic Macrofauna
Driving on Interstate 81 perhaps an hour before the Tennessee line at perhaps 60 mph i hit and killed a black bear.
There were no pictures, it all happened very fast
i did not feel guilty. The traffic was dense, there was no possibility to swerve out of the way. My reflexive and futile effort to slow down nearly resulted in me being rear ended.
i did feel lucky. Had the bear been standing, as it was as it crossed the neighboring lane of traffic, i could have easily lost control of the van and Hawina and i could have been hurt or worse.
i also felt terrible. Shaken, of course, but also bad that i had participated, however unintentionally in killing such a majestic creature. i’ve hit a few snakes and once a dog which also ran onto the highway. But a bear is different, it feels closer to human somehow.
Killing animals, whether by accident or intention is always hard if you are oriented towards accepting all living things as sacred. I find apologizing too the creature’s spirit helps. Glad that you two are OK and that it wasn’t worse.
When I was living at Twin Oaks I remember you once accidentally hitting a deer. I recall that the results of that eventually was a venison dinner at ZK.