In case you care, the squirrel skull was utterly smashed. Despite the fact that the squirrel looked completely whole, it was in fact badly damaged internally.
Experience has been a good teacher in this regard. In fact, experience is often the best teacher. Particularly failures and mistakes. Billy Joel, in his song, "Second Wind", writes, "You're not the only one who's made mistakes but they're the only things you can truly call your own." Had I not scooped up a coyote off the side of the road...and a fox...and a...you get the point. Sometimes, a successful habit becomes ingrained by hours of successful practice; but equally valuable are the few, brief, extremely profound and yet equally painful mistakes that lead to improvement (or at least the effort to avoid the same pain again in the future).
I've worked on light fixtures without turning the power off before...once. All I needed was the buzz that shot up my arm and the accompanying thought, "That could have killed me", to make me a whole-hearted believer in always shutting off the breaker before you mess with electricity. How many other mistakes/learning experiences could I point to in my life?
Today I was talking about making an "Encyclopedia of Life" for my sons--part memoir, part how-to book; a guide for navigating all the crazy challenges one faces in life. I would still really like to do it. But nothing will be so great a teacher as the mistakes they will one day make.
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