Article by Alex Gordon

Lessons from a Worm

At the back of my house there is an alleyway with three large wheelie-bins in which residents can deposit their refuse. Some people put their rubbish into sacks and then deposit them neatly into the bins, whereas others of course simply throw their rubbish anywhere in the alley because they are simply too lazy to walk to the bins, or to buy a roll of dustbin-sacks.

Every Thursday the refuse collectors come to empty the bins, but again, they are too lazy to bring them back and allow them to roll around in the street at the end of the alley, so, I bring them back.

Whilst doing so I always check inside for any slugs and snails that have become trapped and remove them to the paradise of the herb garden, and, whilst doing this, on one hot summer morning, I noticed something very strange.The sides of the bins are probably one and a half metres high, made of smooth plastic, and yet, inside one bin, a small worm, no more than four centimetres long, by forming it’s body into an ‘S’ shape had managed to climb two-thirds of the way up towards the light and the air. It would be the equivalent of me climbing a fifty-foot high glass wall with no hands or feet; such was this tiny creature’s desperation to live.

I have listened to gurus and fallen asleep. I have listened to spiritual intellectuals until I almost lost the will to live with boredom, but watching this tiny worm, edging ever closer towards freedom totally entranced me. What was it using for energy to generate such force? How was the energy being created? And, as the heat of the day rose, and the tiny amount of water in it’s body began to evaporate away, making it’s body increasingly stiffer, how was it still managing to move at all?The lesson was that survival in a quality way must be our prime directive. Without survival, the game is over. Also, all things fight furiously for life and to survive. The butterfly in the water-trough, the fox in the snare, the man in the desert, ultimately, everything comes down to one motive, to live, and that is what ‘Nine Deadly Venoms’ is all about, how to live and not to die.

This small worm taught me more than all the so-called spiritual books that I’d ever read.

What did I do? I lifted the worm out of the bin, rehydrated it with the garden mister and placed it amongst the soft, wet earth of the herb garden.

Maybe it thought I was god, assuming that worms actually think of course, but one thing is certain, they wish to live, just as we do, and you may think, when reading this article, how boring, worms! Rubbish bins! What nonsense, I want to read about something deep, and spiritual and intellectual. I want to read about spirit-guides and angels and how to ‘find’ myself! Well OK, here’s an intellectual thought for you….If we fail to address the problems which we have created in this global environment, and actually start to care about all creatures great and small, then, in thirty years time, probably round about the time that your new-born baby will be getting married, one will be able to take a sailing-boat to the North Pole.

London will have gone.

Is that ‘deep’ enough for you?