By Demo Rinpoche
Whenever I see one of my friends, he always mentions Michigan’s roads. His impression of Michigan is that it is a land of bad roads with many dead animals on the side. I also had a bad first impression of Michigan roads. The sight of dead animals on the roadside was very pitiful after I started to drive not long ago. Surely, Michigan drivers are not meaner than others but avoiding those poor confused animals in the middle of busy roads and highways is almost impossible.
At the end of July this year, I was driving on Golfside Road, which crosses many main roads such as Washtenaw and Ellsworth near where I live. One of my friends was following me with his own car. It was very nice weather and I could clearly see many cars in front of me. Suddenly, a black moving object ran across road and the car in front of me hit it. The car drove on like nothing happened. No brake light. No slowing down. That black object was nothing other than a poor groundhog. I know how hard it is to avoid animals in the middle of the road in general, and especially on a freeway, but somehow I was expecting that car should have avoided the groundhog. Upset at that car for hitting the groundhog, I was moved to pull my car onto the shoulder of the road even though there was not sufficient space.
When I pulled my car over, my friend also pulled his car over. I don’t think he had any idea what I was doing. I assumed the groundhog was not dead, so I was willing to drag him off the road in order to avoid being hit a second time. I was hoping the ground hog could walk again.
But neither me nor my friend was brave enough to walk into the middle of the road to grab the groundhog. My friend was concerned about diseases that a groundhog might carry. And I am scared of many animals in general. So, we tried to find a stick or something to drag the groundhog from the middle of the road. Unfortunately, at that moment the traffic light released a stream of cars, and our hope became in vain.
Cars were coming like a herd of wildebeests and the groundhog was laying on a yellow line in the middle of the road. The groundhog could be hit by cars in both lanes of traffic in a few seconds. But it did not happen like that. Many cars drove over the line to avoid running over the groundhog until one car had no choice but to run over it.
I should have been upset about that last car because it ruined my hope, but I was not. Instead, I was very surprised and rejoiced for those people who tried not to run over an injured or a dead animal. I don’t know if those people where devoted to religion or spiritualty, and I assumed not all those people were Buddhists who have a traditional view that all living beings are capable of reaching enlightenment, but they must have genuine compassion as well as common sense that respects the value of life. That day’s incident gave me a clue about the kindness of people who were sitting behind the steering wheel.
When I was first told about the dead animals of Michigan’s roadsides—and seeing many dead animals myself, such as deer, raccoons, squirrels, opossums, and so forth—I had feelings about the careless or unkindness for animals of Michiganders. This incident proved that I was wrong. Many drivers don’t want to run over animals, but a situation can make it unavoidable. Being upset about the car that hit the groundhog is not that meaningful, and I think the driver might not have been aware of what happened there.
I am hoping not to hit animals when I drive. Thus, I always try to be alert for not just pedestrians but also animals. Sometimes I feel that the poor animals cannot stop from crossing the road because of their situation and we also can’t stop because of our situation. The difference is that we are human beings who created the roads and cars and our need to drive and animals are in their situation because it is their nature.
In the end, I and my friend had to go back in our cars and the only thing left was to pray for that groundhog. “It also could be the karma of the groundhog” was my conclusion to reduce my regret of failing to save the groundhog.
