Off with her Head!

A friend of mine recently caught a water moccasin, one of the few venomous snakes living in Florida. Once she chopped its head off and thus removed the threat to her family's life and well-being, she decided to skin it, study its insides with her kids, and use the skin for a hair-band when it is ready. (She had repeated several times that they never kill wild animals unless they are dangerous to her family or their domestic animals). I was so impressed by my Joan of Arc. Chopping the head of the slithering Leviathan, saving her children's lives and doing something educational and creative! Wow, that's my kind of girl! I thought when I heard her story. Still under the impression of this marvelous example of fortitude and creativity, I went into our garage to set out the garbage for the next day's pick-up. I was too lazy to turn on the light, so I was stumbling in half-darkness when with a corner of my eye I saw something move. I jumped to the ceiling and when I landed back on the ground, I was next to a beautiful, coiled up orange, black and brown snake! Now, I am used to seeing snakes around our yard, black, skinny variety and on one occasion we even had a black racer in our house for a couple of days (don't ask me why for a couple of days!). But, this one was colorful. And color means danger. The alarm goes off in my mind. I scream from the top of my lungs, calling my husband, and with the same breath, like the evil Queen from Alice in Wonderland, I shout, Off with her head! Off with her head! In the back of my mind, I could already see the dramatic accessory gracing my hair, and with all its exciting details and nuances, the story of how I became the proud owner of such trophy begun to form in the crevices of my brain which were not completely flooded by rushing adrenaline. My husband raced out, a picture of Saint George saving his damsel in distress, wielding an old broom like a lance against the fierce dragon. But, instead of chopping its head right off, first he stopped and studied it for a couple of minutes; then he went on-line to check whether it was venomous or not; then he went back into our bedroom, retrieved a digital camera, took photos of the evil creature, and then went back on the Internet to study further in order to determine what kind of snake it was. This was taking way more time and intellect than I was ready to invest. My patience was fraying like the old broom in his hand. Be done with it! Off with her head! It echoed loud and clear in my mind. But he seemed to show no interest in such a violent way of resolving the enigma now stretched out on our garage floor, the curious head lifted up as the snake's eye studied us without blinking. It was a beautiful creature. And its eye seemed to show incomparably more intelligence than I was exhibiting in the moment. We stood there, mesmerized. It wasn't moving. We were not moving. We just stood there, and studied each other. When we peeled our eyes off of her and went back on-line, we were finally able to determine that the unexpected visitor was a corn snake, non-venomous, small rodent eating snake relatively common to this part of Florida. It was a good snake. It's the kind of snake you want around your house because it keeps mice and rats out. And I wanted it killed! In my fear and ignorance, driven by my rushing adrenaline, I was the judge, the jury and the executor, pronouncing the verdict, Guilty! and the matching penalty, Off with her head! without stopping to acquire the necessary facts to substantiate or dismiss such assumption. Then, I step back and think of all the other situations where driven by ignorance, fear and raging emotions I jump to the verdict and carry out the penalty without pausing to... breathe, think, to gather the missing pieces of information… maybe even pray? And another beautiful creature is maimed or destroyed by my ignorance and stupidity.