Snakes

A young man was hiking a trail in the Rocky Mountains. It was a beautiful spring day. The sky was clear and very blue. The earth was waking up from its long winter sleep. Creatures were waking up too. He came upon a large rattlesnake trying to warm itself on a rock. He turned away to avoid disturbing it.
“Pleassssse”, said the snake. “Pleassse pick me up and hold me against your body so that I might warm up.”
“No!” replied the young man. “You will bite me and I will die!”
“I promisssse I will not bite you. I want only to get warm.”
“You are a snake! You WILL bite me and I will die.”
“No….. no… no… I will NOT bite you. I am sssso cold. Pleasssse hold me closssse and help me get warm.”
“I cannot help you. If I pick you up, you will bite me and I will die. I’m sorry.”
The snake continued to beg until the young man finally gave in. “Alright, I’ll pick you up and carry you down the mountain to a warmer place.”
“Thank you,” said the snake. “But you musssst hold me closssse to your chessssst that I may be warm on the walk down.”
“Yes, I will do that”, answered the young man. He bent down, picked up the snake and stuffed it into his jacket against his chest. The snake bit him. As he fell to the ground, he exclaimed, “You promised not to bite me.”
“Yessss, I did. But you knew what I wassss when you picked me up”, the snake replied as he slithered away from the dying young man.
We live in a society full of snakes. Many of them are recognizable as snakes and yet millions are picking them up each day. We can’t allow ourselves to listen to the snakes’ alluring pleas. They WILL bite us and we WILL die.
There are the snakes of addictions: alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, gambling, pornography, etc. We knew what they were when we first picked them up and yet so very many have picked these snakes up. They have held them to their chests and exposed their life’s blood to them. I have seen family after family destroyed by the picking up of these snakes. I have seen individuals completely ruled and then ruined by their lethal bites. What is so alluring about them that so many are tempted to just pick them up?
There is the snake of power. In the past few years, I have seen this snake rear its ugly head. So many people think that they must control the actions of others whether at home or at work. There is no happiness for either the controlled or the controller in such a situation.
There is the snake of deceit. Honesty is no longer valued or admired. Not getting caught is the goal instead of not doing anything you don’t want to be caught at. Why tell the truth when a lie is so much easier? This snake’s bite is especially poisonous because it destroys trust. And trust is the stuff that relationships are made of. “Oh, what a tangled web………”
I don’t what to do about it except to keep yelling as loud as I can- “Put down the snake- back away carefully- now RUN!!!!!!”
That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?