We all know the saying ‘dog eats dog’ and understand its meaning in the modern world. But what if I told you about a woman who walks the roads of Haiti carrying a heavy, heavy bag each and every day, in reparation for a deed she did in the past.
According to the local grapevine this woman suffers day after day for her crime of having eaten her own child.
That sentence certainly puts a new spin on the saying ‘dog eats dog’. I don’t know if I can believe the story I’ve heard; I don’t know if you can believe the story either, but if you lived in Haiti and had nothing to eat and nothing to feed your baby with, and no where to go for help or sustenance who knows what you might do?
None of us can be sure how we would react in someone else’s circumstances, however much we think we might. Life is hard in Haiti and people must become hard to survive so before I judge this woman and her alleged crime, I’m sure it would be wise for me to contemplate what life must have been like for her (if indeed she did commit the crime) at that time.
Having spent some time in Haiti now, I am sure there are many people throughout our world who are and have been hungry enough and desperate enough to have done something similar.
As my father always used to say, “there but for the grace of God, go I.” Those of us who are fortunate enough not to have encountered such a predicament can only thank God for our privileged existence, many others have not been so lucky.