OBLIGATIONS

i watched the ant dragging her fellow worker, who had died, at some great cost back toward probably the nest, though it was a circuitous route at best.  i thought of my own life, how it was absolutely unnecessary to justify it in any terms whatsoever, that like an eagle on his perch watching what happened below or me in my cabin watching the ant or the ant working on transporting the dead one, all these things were done and reasons had nothing to do with it.  my first obligation, like the obligation of the ant like the obligation of the eagle, was to remain alive and do things necessary for that.