Breach

I just watched one of my snakes eat his dinner. Of the two corn snakes I have, I think this one, Hershey, is a little dim.

Okay, call a tree a tree: he's stupid.

You see, snakes are born with an instinct to eat their prey, in Hershey's case a dead mouse, head first. The idea is that by swallowing the noggin and then the body and finally the feet, everything lays down in a perfect position against the mouse's body with the legs outstretched behind it making for a very easy swallow. My other corn, Ellie, knows this and never has any trouble snarfing down her rodent.

Hershey, on the other hand..

Here's the play by play:

The second I come close to his habitat, Hershey knows something is up and gets a little skittish. His tongue begins to flick out at a maddening pace tasting the air for me and what I hold in my hand, and he follows my every move. When I open up the top, he pulls back like a pinball lever, and the second I drop the mouse in his bowl he LEAPS forward and SNAPS his jaws around the furry little morsel.

Except he does it backwards.

Breech.

Instead of lunging for the white whiskered head, he goes for the butt!

So what, right?

Wrong.

By trying to go butt first, Hershey sets himself up for abject failure as he begins an attempt at pulling the mouse into his gaping maw. That snake opens wide and stretches his jaws and pulls the mouse in by shifting his mouth around the critter like he's done hundreds of times before, except this time, by going butt first, the mouse's legs catch at the side of Hershey's head and refuse to bend backwards against their nature. The mouse is stuck and can't be swallowed any farther into Hershey's gullet.

Stuck.

Oh that snake tries and tries to pull the mouse in. He backs his head up, waits a second as if sizing up his dead enemy's prowess, and strikes the butt all over again with the exact same set of problems. He'll do this several more times with the mouse getting stuck in the exact same position each time.

Does he give up?

Nope.

Fifteen minutes more of patient observing (his stupidity is mesmerizing) later, I finally walk away knowing that this will most likely go on for some time before he finally realizes he's been attacking the wrong end. At that point, exhausted and frustrated and HUNGRY, he'll slither (no more lunging for this tire baby) around to the proper end and suck that varmint down in no time.

What a waste of time and energy all because his stubbornness wouldn't let him try a different approach.

You know where I'm going with this, don't you...

How often are we like that little snake?

Much like Hershey's instinct and his meal, I believe we have the ability to look at a task or situation and see the right way to do it, but end up attacking it from the wrong direction because of our stubbornness or deceitfulness or selfishness or ignorance or any number of other things that get in the way of our success. We know the right way to do it, but we let our arrogance assure us that it knows a better way. We continue to attack the butt when we know the head will get us there with less time and effort and cost and heartache.

Folks, it's time to get our heads out of our butts and do the things we've been made to do and do them the right way! You know what to do, so do it!

Politics? It doesn't matter what party you belong to so long as you get out and vote!

Money? Stop blowing your paychecks on worthless crap! If you save and save and are still broke, at least you know you've worked hard to prove you've done all you can!

Relationships? Love is a choice SO CHOOSE IT!

Health? You can't have your cake and eat it too without then working that cake off in the gym and eating well after it. Take care of yourself!

Man, I am right there with you. I struggle and sometimes fail miserably, but I'll learn from my mistakes and avoid that butt-end next time. I'll strive not to make any excuses. I'll do my best to do it right the first time, and when I don't I'll pick myself up and go at it from a different angle.

No breech for me; I'm going in head first!

Over here, Hershey; let me show you how it's done