The Wasp Killer

I thought of a rather cruel trick I once played on a wasp.
He was sucking jam on my plate, and I cut him in half. He paid no attention, merely went on with his meal, while a tiny stream of jam trickled out of his severed esophagus.

Only when he tried to fly away did he grasp the dreadful thing that had happened to him.

It is the same with modern man.

The thing that has been cut away is his soul.

~George Orwell

Why is it so strangely frightening for me to imagine a wasp, cruelly cut in half, with jam oozing from its esophagus?

Just thinking about it makes me shiver with fear and revulsion.

If I were cut in half, what do you suppose would ooze from my esophagus?

Reality television?

My lover's breath?

Html code, perhaps?

What would it be?

All of the above in my case, and then some.

What if Orwell was right?

What if we are like that pitiful wasp?

What if we are too busy stuffing our own selves that we fail to even notice when our souls are cut away?

Oh, guard our souls, dear God!

Guard our souls!