In Aesop’s old fable, a man finds a snake dying from the cold. Moved by compassion, he takes it to his breast and gives it warmth. The snake revives - and bites him.
Centuries later, Oscar Brown Jr. drew on the same tale for his song The Snake, a story Shivaree would later revisit in their own recording. This time it is a tender-hearted woman who takes the creature in, warms it and cares for it. When the snake finally turns on her, its answer is mercilessly simple: she knew what it was from the beginning.
A snake remains a snake.
But perhaps the older lesson reaches further than that.
Compassion does not necessarily change the nature of what receives it. Kindness is not a spell. We may recognise something for what it is and still imagine that love, rescue or proximity will make it otherwise.
The snake may never have hidden its nature.
Perhaps the greater danger lies in what we choose not to see.