I killed a roach in my bathtub today. As I tried to destroy the creature, a thought crossed my mind. Why didn't that bug have as much right to live as I? When the earth was created, no specific denomination took precedence. It was we humans who made the decision that we were number one on the list. However, what right had man to put himself in a special category of being?

I've never spoken to a fly or an ant, a bird or a mouse, and have no way of knowing what they think or feel. Scientists have tried to determine how some of the inhabitants of this planet communicate with one another, and that I have read. In the final analysis, we still know little of whether they too experience fear and the desire to survive. I do know that the roach ran for its life when I attempted to kill it. It clearly wished to live, and go on doing whatever roaches do, but I had decided that it should die.

For the first time that I can recall, I hesitated killing that roach and even spoke to it, telling the bug that I understood that it wanted to live and apologizing for taking its life. If this sounds like madness to you, then so be it. But something tells me that we humans are too presumptuous. We have made a determination that we are superior, but have no way of knowing whether we are more important in the scheme of things than a bee that carries pollen from flower to flower.

Deep in the sea a world exists where the creature inhabitants vie for survival. Some have fins, others not. Once again the issue appears to be hanging on to life. 

Writing this, it occurs to me that humans tend to be audacious. We spend enormous sums of money studying the behavior of members of the "animal" kingdom, but aren't we also animals? The fact that we recognize speech when it comes from another human appears to often ignore that birds have their own way of communicating. The same goes for elephants and horses. How can we know with certainty that even though we don't know how they do it, that poor roach I destroyed hasn't a way of conveying its feelings?

There have been dogs and cats that were integral to my existence, and still are. What I personally have determined is that dogs have their own language. Barking when they are afraid or feel hostile doesn't make a dog less significant in the scheme of things. The cats I have known didn't show their emotions as I do, but a meow says more to another cat than any of us know. Beyond this, some of the best friends I have had were such furry creatures. Their way of communicating love has made my life better and happier.

This has been my way of apologizing to that roach, and also recognizing a very significant truth.