Death of a Duck

Today I cried.
Ok...not really. But I was devestated.

In my evolution class, my professor was convinced that we (humans as we now know them) did not just evolve--but that we killed off all the other hominids. She said it was just that we did not like the competition and wanted (natrually not consiously) to be the superior race. Thus we are the dominant creatures on the earth (Some may argue that insects rule--but really when you look at their life-span, they haven't a chance). For example--just look at the life expectacny of all the animals on earth! Aside from a very few exeptions, we have the longest. In fact, we have made it difficult for others to live by making them live in the "wild" that we have created--the human non-natrual world. This has made the lives of other living animals very difficult and confusing (Just so you don't worry about me becoming "green"--I am not saying we should burn the houses and let the trees grow over the freeway, I am merely observing and lamenting the life of a duck). This rant is becasue of the short time I observed a family of ducks today while driving my fast car on a wide freeway. I was going to Renton for an interview. I left early to avoid traffic and as such there were not many cars on the road at the time. I was on a long straight stretch of 5 lanes with a median and then 5 more lanes. There were trees on both sides of the freeway (not unusual in Washington) and it was a pleasent day. I saw a single-parent family of ducks with two ducklings frantically dodging cars trying to make it to the other side of the freeway (Whoever invented the "why did the chicken cross the road" joke is a sick and twisted person). I first saw them when they were almost across and my first thought was "I wonder how many ducklings there were starting at the other side of the road?" It made me sad. I found myself in those few seconds gripping the steeringwheel in anticipation to see if the little family would make it to safety. When they finally scampered across the last lane of traffic I let out my breath and let a huge grin spread across my face. Once again, nature had thwarted the dangerous "wild" of mankind. Not a second later however, the mom--still running (or waddling quickly) led her ducklings over a rain dranage grate. She made it safely to the otherside and turned around. To her suprise, the ducklings were nowhere to be seen. The had tried to follow her across the grate and had quickly slipped through the slats into the drain.
That is when I passed them on the road. My grin was immediatly replaced with a look of horror and my jaw had dropped. The motherly instincts in me were shocked and I was at a loss of feeling for the mother duck. I was devestated for her.
There was nothing I could do. That is why I decided to write about this little family that will forever be stuck in a rut.
It just makes me hope that I will never be careless enough to lead my poor future children over a drainage grate. And If I do--I hope it just spills outside on the otherside of the freeway. Everyone deserves a second chance.

There really are only two questions to ask with this experience.
Why did the duck cross the road?
Was it worth it?