Paradox

Even my friend Jill thought it odd when I went to such lengths to secure Tatty, the camouflaged looper, a place where he/she could move on to his/her next stage of development.

After taking final pictures, I held the large vase with Tatty's bouquet and drove down and up and around seriously twisty streets to Jill's house (not an easy feat in a stick-shift car).  There, I deposited Tatty on his/her flower with two other blooms (I stuck them in the dirt [Jill's idea]) in a shady bed of zinnias.

Yes, nature may take its course.  Tatty may be eaten by some other being.  However, Tatty may pupate and some day emerge as a moth.

In either case -- death or life, I have not been the god who determined the outcome.

This is my constant paradox.  I eat animals but don't kill them myself.  Perhaps it's time to re-think the eating habit, just as I re-thought the pleasure of a tatterdemalion caterpillar in my living room.

For now, I feel as if I have met my responsibility, and for a while, I think I shall avoid that section of Jill's garden.