Look into the eyes of a chicken and you will see real stupidity.—Werner Herzog Next door’s chicken didn’t get the memo. Not only does it run from me when I try to catch it and return it to their yard, it has now taken to hiding under their car so I can’t get at it. It has also developed its flying skills to the point where it can fly over the fence and into our back yard.
“Uncle Joe” once said: A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic. I’m not entirely sure what he meant, and it’s possible that it lost something in translation. I take it to mean that we are more affected by one death we are personally involved in, than a million we know little about. I’ll admit that when I read about many strangers dying in some distant land, it’s a lot less upsetting than hearing about a single person dying whom I happen to have met; even if the victim is someone I only met a couple of times, their tragic death will still make me pause to re-evaluate things.