Today we went on a six mile bike ride, several miles from home. As we rode along the wooded path, the rode cam alongside a river to the right. After riding for a short distance, a sudden stench assaulted our nostrils.
On the left side of the path, a dried up pond. In that pond, hundreds, if not thousands of dead fish! And not just fish, but very large fish. They must have been at least twelve inches long, if not longer.
From what we could gather, it appeared that the drain pipes that ran under the gravel path had seeped water from the river to the other side, creating a narrow pond along side the bike path. While filled with water, the fish must have found their way beneath the bike path and to the newly created pond…but when the waters receded, the poor fish could not figure out how to get back to the other side. Not soon enough to save their lives, that is.
I know their just fish, but my heart aches and I can’t seem to get that image out of my mind. It’s one thing to see a dead fish but to see so many scattered along a long, narrow path, knowing that all they need was a little guidance and they could have easily swam to safety. The way they were all scatted out, lying on their sides in the soggy ground, some areas with only an inch or two of water, made me think of the carelessness of human lives being destroyed in the days of Hitler.
Maybe THAT’S was the core of what was truly haunting me.
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