Choices:

The earthworm has made a poor life choice, wriggling out of the grass and onto the sidewalk. It follows, no doubt, some potent tropism. But beyond the sidewalk is the drive, and beyond that, parking. The equivalent of the length of the Appalachian Trial lies between it and shelter. Its prospects are dim. It would be a simple thing to intervene, placing it back within the cool damp green. But it would probably just crawl back into harm, in obedience to the compulsion that sent it northward in the first place. Or I could carry it beyond to the other side. But I have finished my break now, and the newsletter deadline looms. And in just this way is half the world's evil done.