potentials

the wife was shrieking loudly outside. she was about to clean up some cooking utensils she had used. water supply had just been cut. water service is on scheduled basis. this morning, it is our turn to be without water. so she had to go out and clean her things beside the water drums.

i rushed out to see why she was shrieking. SNAKE! she wailed frightfully, pointing to a spot on the ground near the cooking paraphernalia she had put down. i had to put on my glasses to see. it was a snake indeed. a newly born snake. just about 3 inches long and still colorless. but it was alive alright and wriggling briskly on the wet cement floor. it could not crawl as much as it wants to probably because the floor's slippery. it' s head was bobbing up and down just like the cobras we see in films. it may not be a cobra. it may be another kind of snake.

the wife was shaking as we watched the baby snake struggling on the floor. it really is trying to get out of thewet floor but it's not making any headway. how it got to there i don't know. TAKE IT AWAY! the wife demanded. I CAN'T CLEAN MY UTENSILS WITH THE SNAKE WRIGGLING THERE! just do what you have to do, i told her. it can't hurt you. it's just a baby snake. see, it's still transparent even, you can see it's insides.

NO, NO, IT'S A SNAKE. TAKE IT AWAY FAR FROM HERE, PLEASEEEE.. i snatched a length of toilet paper and picked up the soft body on the floor. i went out by the road and carefully laid it down. it was still wet and the rough pavement had started to get warmed up by the morning sun. i looked at the creature by my feet. thoughts raced in my mind. a few months from now this baby will have grown up. it may not look as innocent as it is now. it will be a REAL snake capable of exercising its attributes. it will have the potential to harm as we have grown to know of snakes. adult snakes are a threat to us. it is what we have been raised to believe.

i raised my foot and dropped it on the baby snake's head and pressed hard against the pavement. i can see the tail twisting and turning. it did so even after i have removed my foot from the crushed head. some seconds later it was not moving anymore.

most often, weighing potentials is clouded by the mind's accumulated impressions. when one is confronted by situations where one is to choose between the potential to be harmful or to be beneficial, one is given actually a choice between killing and letting to live ...