, BY You may not have heard, but we are supposed to be the dominate ones on the earth and not all the creeping, crawling, biting, scratching other creatures on this planet. This was always the way I thought even before I read about it in the book of Genesis. So as far as I’m concerned, when I’m minding my own business and some little insect or other creature attacks me he has challenged my dominating status and must be met with an equal or greater force. Back at the old homestead I walked out on the porch to do some chores. A yellow jacket for no reason bombarded me on the head and planted his stinger in my scalp. Immediately righteous indignation rose up in me and I grabbed a broom and poked at the corner of the porch and the washroom where the nest was. Dozens of irate yellow jackets came swarming at me, chasing me down the driveway toward the road. When I reached an open area I turned and began swatting them to the ground with the broom and then I would finish them off with my boot. There was a lot of swinging and swatting before it was all over. And when it was over, there were no more live yellow jackets around me and the only time I got stung was from the first attack. I went back to the porch to put the broom back stepping over the battlefield littered with their little yellow bodies. I noticed there was one flying around near the porch that witnessed what had just taken place. I decided to let him live so he could warn the rest of his tribe to leave me be. I was just a kid then and over the years I’ve developed a philosophy of sorts. Be kind to people as best as you can. Learn to forgive quickly. But where things with little stingers and claws are concerned, deal with them aggressively. Many years later I moved down to the Texas coast and began operating a crab boat for a couple of seasons. One day I was working alone out in the bay running from one crab trap to the next, pulling up the trap, emptying the crabs onto a culling trough, re-baiting and throwing the trap back in the water while the boat was still in motion. This was a technique I was trying to perfect. And somewhere in the midst of this I had to find time to cull the crabs, pulling out the females and all male crabs that were less than seven inches. The challenge here was to do this without being pinched because there was a trough full of crabs with their pinchers up ready to latch on to my bare fingers. I was gloating within myself that I was able to do all this multi-tasking without getting pinched when this wimpy little crab got a hold of my pinky and began to put the pressure on. Believe me when these guys do get a hold of you it’s without mercy and they really do hurt. My reaction may stir up some protests from the Save the Crabs foundation but he wouldn’t let go or let up. So I pulled him off my finger and pulverized him with my culling trowel. There were dozens of other crabs in the trough with their eyes set on me. And all of them had their pinchers up, ready to do me bodily harm. But after they witnessed what had just happened to their buddy every one of them in unison lowered their pinchers and sashayed away from me. Needless to say I had no problems with them for the rest of the day. This amused me so much that I purposely stuck my fingers in the crowded trough to see if anybody wanted to take a shot. But they weren’t having any. So what’s the point of this story? There’s not one really. Although you may be able to find one or relate in some way. But I can say that every bit of it’s true unless you’re part of a radical group out to protect crabs and yellow jackets. If that’s the case then I just made it all up.