TOW #23 "Not Nothing'" (written)

                In this short essay by Stephen Cave, the concept of the daily balance of life and death are contemplated. Cave begins with a narrative section in which he describes a time when he accidentally killed a fly. He then addresses the fact that the audiences’ opinions of him at the time are most likely divided between those who think the death was insignificant, and those who think of him as a murderer. In another narrative section, Cave mentions the life cycle of frogs from the time they are eggs, to tadpoles, to finally frogs, and how the many deaths along the way are necessary for any pond’s life to flourish. I do not think he is trying to prove that death or life are good or bad, but he is trying to qualify that both are necessary and “are obligate symbionts, each wholly dependent on the other,” (paragraph 8). Cave then goes to addresses the ideas of Veganism and how it is very anti-death, as well as him not being the only person to feel negatively about the death of a fly and write about it. He uses the example of a poet by the name of William Blake and his short poem that sprung from a time when he too killed a fly by accident. This shows that the feelings of empathy occasionally associated with the unintentional killing of a popularly thought insignificant creature is not uncommon.