When I was a kid, I saw a nature documentary about animal intelligent. One segment showed how animals, especially mammals, react to death. Most mammals mourn the dead, but deer process death differently.

In the video, a hunter aimed a rifle at a deer in a herd, fired one shot, and killed it. The rest of the herd ran away.

But moments later, the herd returned to the place where they were grazing and where one of them had just died. They grazed around the deer’s corpse as if it wasn’t there, as if nothing had happened.

I searched the internet for information about this behavior, and hunters reported that it is typical. Deer are unconcerned with death; they are concerned with predators. When a threat appears gone, they return to where they were and resume their grazing behaviors.

I have a hard time thinking of the shooting at Fiesta De Los Reyes and not thinking of the grazing behaviors of human beings. Last Saturday, two young men died in a gunfight at this Fiesta San Antonio event. An 18-year-old shot a 20-year-old to death, and the police shot the 18-year-old to death. Four women were also injured by gunfire at the scene.

The next day, Sunday, as if nothing happened, at the same event and location where an 18 and 20-year-old died by gunfire 12 hours before, people came to the party. They grazed on food and drinks. Two dietary favorites are roasted corn and corn in a cup. You know—deer bait.

At last year’s Fiesta De Los Reyes, there was another shooting. The man survived his injuries, and few people were deterred from their time in the meadow. At Fiesta De Los Reyes, the fear is not death but humiliation.

Some people, like deer, are less concerned with death than they are with humiliation, and they are getting themselves killed over it. The humiliation of the bruised ego. The humiliation of feeling vulnerable. The humiliation of someone looking at you. Some people don’t want to be kicked down a peg or feel like someone has control over their social status. So, they deny their humility and devolve into stupidity.

Oh my, how ordinary feelings of life have scared us into trading our humility for nihilism and our thumbs for hooves. And look at how people will permanently and gravely embarrass themselves to avoid the feeling of temporary humility. Road rage. Mass shootings. Crimes of passion. Hate crimes. Gang violence. Police brutality.

I wish I could wrap this up cleanly, but I’m unsure if I want to dwell on this much longer. It’s a sad way of life to become so accustomed to gun violence that we gorge on overpriced commodities and dance on blood-stained grounds.