Making Choices

The moonrise is crisp and clear. Broken clouds at such varying heights the setting sun paints them with different colours depending on the elevation. Some clouds go from gray to white to pink to a deep salmon. The moon is a cleaner white and more detailed than I see at home.

 

Tonight six boats have sought anchorage in the pass between the two mangrove islands, seeking refuge against the strong north east current with winds running to 25 knots, raising the sea state to a four foot chop.

Four of the six have the mooring lights showing, warning other boats of their presence in the dark seas. Maritime law demands compliance. Last week a man died when he rammed his PWC (personal water craft) into the side of a moored boat at night. The law here in the tropics says operation of a PWC during hours of darkness is punishable. The story I read didn’t mention if a mooring light was on, or if alcohol was a factor. I assume that speed certainly was.

On my way home from the gym yesterday there was an iguana sunning itself dead centre in my lane. A GMC pickup off to starboard said no to a lane change, and speeds here are 45 mph in business areas. No choice but to run over the lizard. And I do, but the lizard lives on, being just the right height to avoid being rendered headless. I know because I felt nothing hit the car, and the little head popped up in the rear view still attached to its owner.

The iguana, unlike humans, don’t know there are rules to survival that you actually get a chance to ignore. For an iguana life is pretty simple. Eat, mate, and being an ectomorph spend a lot of time regulating body temperature. Humans make choices, often bad ones and for some of the same biological reasons as the iguana

Dumb luck, divine intervention, and karmic realization are pretty irrelevant. In this story the iguana’s alive and the human isn’t. And I’m left pondering who might be smarter or luckier, the ignorant left over dinosaur or the cave man in blue jeans making choices?