Deer in the headlight

Deer in the headlight: There is a common phenomenon from where I am from. Driving down the winding road to my home in North Carolina sometimes a deer will leap into the street and as the headlight of my car shines on it, the animal freezes, a confused and scared look on the face. It realizes that it has been “caught” or discovered. Its secret is out. (I just saw such a “deer” yesterday). The deer realizes that it is in a place where it should not be and doing something it should not be doing. Frozen with fright, it pauses and then flees. When caught in the moment of danger the cowards flee, the ones with courage stay and fight. This is well known amongst animals. But they flee because of mortal danger. They would die if they did not flee. What about people? Do the cowards freeze like the deer in the headlight? The sheer terror of being caught in the act – from stealing from the till to taking your friend’s wife to the beach for a roll in the sand – its all the same. I have seen these terrors. Years of work with surveillance technologies demonstrate how the people get caught. And there are red flags too – when the deer knows it will be caught – or the man will be caught in adultery – turn off location on the phone, prepare a believable story for the family. But in the end it comes down to running. Like the deer, which freezes for a second and then runs – for the humans it is getting into a car and speeding away – hoping no one will notice. But someone always notices.  Because fleeing is not the answer. For the deer that I hit and killed some years ago, it had the courage to contend with a van travelling at 100 km per hour. I hit it in the rump, it flung off the road. My van came to dead stop. The seat belts locked in and the people in the van survived, the van did not. We left it in the tiny town of Winchester, VA and walked away. We both lost – the deer died, and my car was totaled. But neither fled. The coward flees. In a car, driven by a hired driver, rented to feed the lust, but eventually a get a way vehicle. It is just sad how many people do not have the moral courage to stand and fight – to say, as my bondhu Hyde has taught me – “show me what you got.” The coward looks away, hangs his head, and feigns non-recognition. The deer in the headlight. The coward, like the deer that scampers away just in time, is incapable of looking one in the eye, incapable of standing and holding ground. Incapable of seeing blood on the ground. Only an incapable coward. But how do they survive? Because unlike the deer, which has no protector, the human coward always relies on a protector. They beg and grovel, and the protector always assures them that all is well. And the coward survives. But eventually, they get caught. Because someone always sees, even when they are speeding away in a car with their protector. Stay tuned for the next story on the protector – whose kindness knows no ends and is taken for granted by the coward who sits smug in bed with the protector – knowing that the coward will always be protected. The deer in the headlight, and as Suicide Silence reminds us, “Put that gun to your head/You're a fucking disgrace/You Coward.” Without the protectors, these cowards would be dead. More on the protectors in the next piece.