A very slow autograph

I saw this on my walk through the neighborhood today.

I thought it might be famous so I asked for an autograph. Hmm, I had to wait ages.

How wars start and snails get squashed

On my walk today I found a large snail halfway across the road.

Tall person said that it was lucky not to have been squashed by a car.

He picked it up and placed it gently on the grass verge.

I asked him why he had picked it up and he said that everything needs a helping hand sometimes. I thought about that for a few moments and then suggested to the tall person that the snail might not have wanted any help – it had already reached halfway across the road. Tall person smiled and said that knowing that the snail might have been squashed meant that he had an obligation to intervene.

I thought about that and suggested to the tall person that it might have been better to allow fate and free will to determine the snail’s destiny.

Tall person nodded and said that sometimes it is a judgment call but each of us knowingly or unwittingly changes the course of everyone and everything we meet and they change ours. Each life and its direction is determined by intervention.

We stood in silence for a while and then he said that the easiest and sometimes most difficult thing to do is to do nothing when you know you should intervene.

Ah, so that is how wars start and snails get squashed?

I knew there was no need for an answer as we turned and headed for home.