take from each experience what you will

I got a copy of A Cricket in Times Square at The Book Thing on Saturday (awesome). Then at church the next day, I saw a cricket crawling across the carpet. I started calling to it in my head, Here, cricket cricket cricket! It started coming towards me. I watched it over the course of several minutes, willing it to come closer and closer. A man in the aisle in front of me got up. Aaaah, I thought, Don't crush the cricket! He's my friend! Not seeing my insect companion, the man in front of me walked right over it, narrowly sparing the cricket's life.

Whew. That was a close one. The cricket was deterred for a moment, reversing its course. I called to it again in my mind. Slowly but surely, he turned around and regained his journey toward my chair. I was really enjoying this church service, thinking about the connections between literature from my childhood and my love for nature - the countless lessons in compassion and perspective that people all over the United States and the world have learned from books like Charlotte's Web - the stories that every person and every living thing carries, sometimes shared with others and sometimes known only by God.

Then the guy behind me got up, crushed the cricket in a tissue, threw it away, and sat back down, probably very satisfied with himself for doing everyone a favor and getting rid of the pesky bug.

I'm not against killing bugs. I just thought it was a little presumptuous.