Empathy

Today

On television

We watched a little turtle

Dig for three days to emerge from her egg underneath the sand

Get stuck in kelp and

Dodge menacing crabs and diving sea birds

Simply to have the pleasure of

Being rocked about by the waves and

Perhaps being thrown back out on the beach

Then

After finding safety in a clump of seaweed

Floating in the Gulf Stream current

Get stranded in the Sargasso Sea and

Run over by a huge container ship

Then

After recovering for more than four years from that

Make her way back to the Gulf Stream Current

So she could be dashed against the rocky coast of Nova Scotia

And

All the while never change her expression

Which might explain why

Upon being told that I wouldn’t be giving him a boat ride today

My three year old son said

“I’m really pissed off”