- Joined
- May 1, 2004
- Messages
- 2,290
My grandfather was about as devout a Christian as ever there was-took the Bible literally, all that-but in spite of having spent much of his life killing every snake he encountered, believing them all to be dangerous and evil things, and in spite of not having more than a third grade education(he grew up during the Depression and had to drop out of school at the age of 8 to work and help support his family, as did many people who grew up in that era), he was still an open-minded and intelligent person. He learned, from watching and listening to me, a mere child, how to distinguish venomous from non-venomous snakes, and he learned that snakes can be very beneficial, especially to farmers like himself. He once told me that when it became obvious that nothing was going to end my fascination with snakes, that he prayed that if it was so wrong for his granddaughter to handle these animals, that God would find a way to stop me before I got hurt or killed, and that if it WAS OK for me to be doing that, for God to open his mind to the idea. His conclusion was that God chose the latter, and through me, a child, taught my grandfather that snakes were a vital part of Creation as much as any other animal. My grandfather came to really appreciate their usefulness as pest controllers that worked free of charge, without the risk of putting out poisons that could harm other animals, and he especially came to value the many large Black Ratsnakes that lived on the farm. He learned out to pick one up without getting bitten, though he did get musked on, which caused some issues with him and my grandmother, since my grandfather had no sense of smell and couldn't savor that distinct "aroma", but my grandmother sure did! He would move snakes from one barn to another when the mice or rats got out of hand in one barn, and he forbid any of his farm workers to harm a snake, and actually did fire one man on one occasion for killing a Ratsnake. The only time I ever heard him threaten another person with violence was over a Ratsnake that was crossing the highway out at the end of the driveway, when a driver nearly ran over my grandfather, who'd gone out to the mailbox, while trying to run over the snake. The man rolled down the car window and yelled for my grandfather to move out of the way(in his OWN driveway), so he could run over the snake that had managed to make it to the safety of the driveway, and my grandfather let him know in no uncertain terms that he'd be facing the bad end of a shotgun if he did! Even for someone without an education, who grew up believing that he was justified by his religion to kill all snakes, there was hope in intelligence and open-mindedness, once he was shown that what he'd believed for all of his life was not necessarily right. If ever there is evidence that having a Christian belief automatically renders a person incapable of learning or accepting new ideas, it was my grandfather.
pitbulllady
pitbulllady
