The Shongololo must cross the road
When one travels on the roads near my home in the rainy season, one frequently comes across Millipedes (we call them Shongololos) unhurriedly crossing the road.
To ensure the survival of its species, the Shongololo must follow certain instincts. It must get food and it must get to a mate before its lifecycle ends.
Unfortunately for the Shongololo it has to cross many human made roads in the process.
So Shongi, our Shongololo, crosses the vast stretch of hot tarmac, hurrying slowly. VROOOOM passes a car without killing Shongie with its big rubber tyres. Shongi is frightened by the shadow of the noisy car passing over him and he instinctively curls himself up. CRUNCH! goes Shongi when a second car drives over him.
‘Curling up is not a good idea’, thinks Shongi. Every time I do that, I get killed by a car tyre. I will try a different approach.
So the next time he crosses the road, VROOOOM goes a big truck and passes over him. But, keeping his resolve, Shongi doesn’t curl himself up. Instead he keeps going. CRUNCH! goes Shongi as another truck drives over him with its giant tyres.
‘Schucks’ says Shongi, ‘wrong decision again!’
The next morning we find Shongi at the roadside with a deep frown on his forehead. ‘How am I going to get over this road without being killed every time?’ he mutters.
Absorbed in thought he shifts from his left five hundred legs to his right five hundred legs and thinks: ‘I am not as fast as a monkey to quickly run across the road between two passing vehicles, and I can’t see as good as the eagle to be able to know when there are no cars approaching. How then can I eliminate the risk of death when crossing the road?’
It was late afternoon and Shongi was hot, hungry and not sure if he would ever get to the other side of the road where the slim, female Shongololo with the thousand shapely legs impatiently waited for him.
‘Schucks’ said Shongi, ‘I will never figure out a way of eliminating the risks of crossing the road, but if I want food and to perpetuate my genes with the leggy Shongololo, I will have to cross the road regardless of the risks.
So he set off on his arduous journey across the road. He had barely travelled a third of the distance when a bicycle wheel went right over his behind. ‘Ouch, stupid kid’ said Shongi, but he kept going.
He had barely reached the white line when thriteen wheels of a twenty six-wheeler truck passed frightingly near him. ‘Wow’ said Shongi, ‘that was as close as my eyes to my nose’, but he kept going.
Just as he had crossed the white line, on the second half of his journey, a roaring motorcycle shot past, barely missing his head. ‘Human pig!’ shouted Shongi, but he kept going.
As Shongi reached a point a few centimetres from the side of the tarmac and safety, a broad wheeled Jeep loaded with noisy young people came screaming down the road.
‘Ag no man, not again!’ cried Shongi and ran as fast as his thousand legs would carry him. As he looked over his shoulder he saw a human female in the front passenger seat. She pointed in his direction as she pulled on the drivers’ sleeve. ‘O schucks’ thought Shongi, ‘a millipede killer!’
The driver turned the steering wheel and Shongi closed his eyes. But he still ran like his life depended on it, which it did. When he opened his eyes again, prepared to be a dead Shongololo as it usually happens, the broad rimmed vehicle was already so far away that he could not see it anymore.
An exhausted Shongi collapsed over the side of the tarmac onto the dirt. He curled himself up and rolled down the slope of the road shoulder.
As he was having the time of his life perpetuating his genes with the leggy female Shongololo, Shongi looked to the sky and thought: one cannot live life without risks. I may be able to reduce the risks by running and braking, by ducking and diving or by any other means. But I will never be able to cross the road without some risk.
That is how life is. If we move we run risks. If we remain stationary, we run risks.
Sometimes we get hit, sometimes we don’t, and sometimes a kind person in the passenger seat convinces the driver to steer clear of us. But there are always risks involved.
‘Yes’ thought Shongi as he walked away from a very happy female Shongololo. I cannot live life without the risks. If I accept life, I also have to accept the risks. ‘But if I accept the risks and the compensation that goes with life, it adds up to a worthwhile experience’.
Just then a biker on his off-road motorcycle drove through the bush. CRUNCH! went Shongi the Shongololo, future father of many.