About a fly

I was tempted to write this post when this afternoon during lunch, my cousin skillfully swatted a fly with a roll of newspaper and injured it. This made it easier to catch and afterward kill and throw it in the bin, and also made me think what right did we have to kill the fly.

People perceive flies as pests, trying to dirty our food by stepping and vomiting all over it. Yet what was it really trying to do? Pestering us, or finding food to survive? So what is so wrong about it? Yet it is just so hard and tiring to simply wave it away. We just can't eat in peace!

Then what are we? Pests as well? We overfish, we over-hunt, we cut down trees. We're stealing another's food, we're stealing another's home. Yet we're just trying to survive, or are we? Why can't we just take enough? Because those who take enough suffer. The crocodile that kills its prey that lasts him a few days gets skinned. The elephant that roams in the jungle gets her tusks chopped off and her home deforested. It's not just slightly more than what we need, it's overwhelmingly too much. Why are we stealing so much of theirs?

It's not so much of whether nature can heal itself. Some tell us not to underestimate the healing powers of nature. Yet we have to ask ourselves, even if starfish can regenerate its limbs, is it right to slice off its arms just in the name of fun? How human are you? Very human.