Choosing Awareness.

I have been riding my bike to work when I can and am amazed at how much more aware one needs to be on a bike as compared to speeding past the surroundings in a car. On my way home from work tonight I noticed another biker had stopped on the sidewalk and looked distressed about something. I slowed down and asked her if she was ok and was relieved to hear that she had simply stopped to keep a snapping turtle from crossing the busy street into what would likely result in the turtles death by car tire. I stepped off my bike and walked over to look at the turtle with her. The turtle was likely a female, planning to cross the road to lay her eggs.

I asked the woman if she made it a habit of helping snapping turtles cross roads. She mentioned that she was a veterinarian and actually had done so before, but that she normally would use a snow shovel to push the turtle into a large bucket as a way of avoiding the potentially dangerous snap from the jaws that the turtle derives its name. She made a call on her cell phone to her husband and he was soon on his way to bring her the needed turtle rescue gear. This woman demonstrated a keen sense of awareness of her surroundings, and an accompanying ability to act upon what she had become aware.

In his second series of articles that appeared in the AA Grapevine magazine in June of 1966, Robert Greenleaf wrote about another important choice that is needed if one desires to live a mature life, that of choosing to be aware. According to Greenleaf, “the lead that a leader has (whether he be parent, teacher, politician, businessman) is to use his superior information sources to see what must be done far enough ahead of anybody else so that he can act his way, the right way, rather than let events force his hand and require that he compromise with other people’s judgments."

The woman on the bike had told me that she debated with herself whether to give the turtle a hand or if she should let “nature take its course”. She said that she knew if she saw the turtle dead in the road the next day that she would be haunted by her choice, and therefore helping the turtle was what she must do. Her choice was a clear demonstration of a leader being able to see far enough ahead to be able to act in the right way.

Later as I continued my bike ride home, I traveled along another busy road, full of speeding cars. I came across another turtle, this time a painted turtle, which had not had the good fortune of being assisted by someone with awareness. This turtle had been struck by a car, and ended up at the side of the road, upside down, with her shell crushed, and her life and quest to lay her eggs over. This was a vivid reminder of the destructive power of our choice to be unaware.