Snakes Can Run

Hey, is your refrigerator running? Hopefully, because if it isn’t, everything in it could go off.

Have you gone running lately? I have, though not for as long as I should.

Notice something there? There’s only one word that shows in in both those question and replies; running. The context is different for both, but unless you thought I was making a horribly corny joke, you perfectly understood what I meant. If a machine is running, it’s working. Parts of it are moving, and the machine is doing something. If a person is running, they’re moving, propelling themselves forward (and if they want to show off, backwards). Yet if I tell you that snakes can run, you scoff. Why? Because it’s a ridiculous image, that’s why. "Look out, ma! That there snake be running at you!"

But … I don’t get it. Cheetah’s run. Emu’s run. Hell, though it looks kind of weird, Giraffes, Elephants, Sheep, Cows, all sorts of animals can run. For animals, it’s when they’re moving very fast (well, fast for that species) towards or away from something. So why is it that removing the legs makes this sentence wrong? I’m not sure, personally. A snake, like any other animal, will eventually need to move quickly. Yet what do we call it when a snake is moving? Slithering, most of the time. Yet that doesn’t convey urgency. There’s no desire for speed in the word slithering, there’s no empathise on haste. Technically speaking, a snake is slithering if it moves a metre in ten seconds or two. I don’t want someone yelling “Look out, that snake is slithering towards you” when it’s coming faster than my walking speed. Though, to be fair, I’m guessing I’d hear something more along the lines of “Holy Shit That Snake Is Moving Oh God Oh God Oh God RUN!” but that’s beside the point.

In my interpretation, running means something slightly different to the normal. It isn’t the act of using your legs to move forward quickly, it’s moving forward quickly. It’s rushing, it’s haste, it’s speed. Snakes can run. Fish can run. When necessary, even birds can run. After all, if a steamroller can run, I’m not exactly going to draw a line at fast, urgent movements from animals. Because in the end, it’s obvious. Snakes can run.