Nature is a never-ending buffet of amazing sights, sounds, and activities. The natural world is one that man will probably never understand fully, but that hasn’t stopped people from appreciating the splendor and beauty of the world. In fact, it is often ignorance of the world that inspires the most profound connection with it. If man understood the world, would it still be beautiful?
While many people have come to understand the value of the natural world, some still have a hard time dealing with nature in person. The beauty of the planet should not be eclipsed by fear of the things in world, but the two should play off of each other like two sides of the same coin. A healthy respect for nature is required to live in peace with it. One man understands that better than anyone, and a video he took shows exactly how he was able to overcome a common fear in order to better commune with nature.
The man was in his seventies when he shot the short video clip, but that hasn’t stopped him from enjoying the pristine nature of the world. He loves to visit a small pond where he can see the natural world in its raw state, and one video he recently took shows exactly how one should deal with nature. The video in question deals with the man’s encounter with a diamondback water snake.
Snakes are one part of nature that a lot of people fear, but that fear is often exaggerated far above what it needs to be. Some snakes should certainly be avoided, especially those that are particularly aggressive or venomous, but just as many snakes are completely harmless to people even if they were to bite. Snakes have a lot of negative stigmas associated with them thanks to several common religious symbols that represent the snake as Satan himself, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Snakes are merely another of nature’s creatures, and they are no more threatening or dangerous than anything else if you know how to deal with them. This seventy-year-old man clearly knows how to handle them.
The video starts with the man attempting to film a snake as it swims in the water beneath his dock. He is calm and collected the whole time, excited by the sighting. He has a deep interest in snakes, and he even brings dead fish with him so he can feed them. The snake in the video must be one that he has fed before, because it reacts to the man in a way unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
The snake realizes the old man has a fish for her, so she slithers up out of the water, crawls up the man’s leg, and gently takes the fish from his hand. The old man is preening over the beauty of the snake the entire time, and rightfully so. The majestic creature appears like any other domestic pet as it takes the meal from the man. The snake even allows the old man to help her return to the water. After the snake is safely back in the water, the old man comments on how he hopes the snake will remember him in the future.
Many who have seen the footage refer to this old man as a snake whisperer, but that is merely the explanation offered by those who have no experience with wild snakes. In reality, this old man is no different than those who feed the birds in the park on sunny afternoons. He appreciates nature as it is, and he yearns to connect with it.