This was it, the day he had always waited for. Although the chicken was excited for this momentous occasion he was understandably a little anxious. “What if I mess this up?” he thought to himself. He was always making a mess of things, he knew this better than anybody. But today he was more anxious than ever as this was the day he had waited for his entire life. If he made a mess of this how could he face his family, how could he face himself. “No” the chicken thought to himself, he couldn’t mess this up, this is the one thing he was born to do, his whole life has been building to this moment and he wasn’t going to give up so easily. As he stepped towards the traffic lights he thought about that phrase again, “his whole life.” Is this really what his whole life has been building to? “When I’ve crossed the road,” he thought “what next?”. The chicken had no other goals, he hadn’t planned for this contingency. Is this really the meaning and ultimate goal of his sad and somewhat disappointing existance? “Why would I cross the road?”
In this moment the chicken was struck by an overbearing sense of existential dread. Overwhelmed and incapacitated the chicken was incapable of crossing the road any longer. Even if he were physically able to why should he? How could he, knowing what he knows now? To cross the road would mean to carry on living the life he once knew which he knew would be insincere, if not impossible. Mentally crippled by the choice between living a lie or giving up entirely the chicken took a while, standing on the edge of oblivion, gazing endlessly at the far side of the road, the goal he was always destined to reach.
The chicken began to ponder and after a while came to the conclusion that perhaps it is better to not focus on these questions as life is too short to spend worrying about such things. He decided it would be better to live a life in ignorance than to not live at all. “This is why I will cross the road.”
With this new found knowledge the chicken was ready to face this brave new world with a smile on his face and prepared himself to take the first step of the rest of his life. He brushed off his feathers, took a deep breath and proudly strode out into the road.
But before he could even finish his first step in a split second his life was stolen from him as he was crushed by a speeding truck.