consequences

[quarrel]

A friend passed me a link similar to this one today. It's an article about some minor observing a wild otter too closely in an area where an otter — possibly ill, possibly even rabid — was already known to have attacked two people and a dog. The link includes a video of said otter charging and biting the person.

Interactions between wild animals and inexperienced or thoughtless people rarely end well. But any outcome, even a bad one, can bring lessons. These tragedies are often ready-made course material for the lesson that what you meant to do doesn't matter. You just wanted to be friendly. You just wanted to pet it. You just wanted a better look. You just wanted to feed it. But what you did was get bit, or sabotage the creature's ability to find its own food, or undermine the natural caution that kept it from getting shot, or magnify the likelihood of what happened to Freddy the Fox.

Actions have consequences. Reality doesn't give a flying fig what you wanted to happen or how much effort you put into prediction. You can't wash away blood with, "But I meant to help!" Consider all the possibilities before you act, especially if you're doing something unfamiliar. L'enfer est plein de bonnes volontés ou désirs.