Avarice
I have never been one to hate humans. I know a lot of humans are, that their rocks are most thoroughly gotten off by writing about how abhorrent we are in every aspect of our being. A popular frame for these arguments is the "we are the only creature in nature that X" where X can be any number of cardinal sins. I've heard we're the only animal that murders for pleasure, that we are the only animal that rapes, and often that we are the only animal with greed. That other animals take only what they need, they don't over-reproduce, they don't overextend the environment, and they recycle ALL their paper and plastics.
The other day I sat at the train station waiting for Amy's train to come in, when I noticed a small seagull approaching a large peach. I swear that peach must have been half the seagull's mass, it was at very least of size comparable to the seagull's torso. Far too much food for a single seagull, is what I'm getting at. He seemed pretty speculative at first, but I guess once he decided he was not above eating fruit with hair, he dug in. As is generally the case in this universe, other seagulls started to materialize, and I watched this seagull alternately jump around and scream and gobble down bites of that peach surrounded by 4 or 5 others.
Gobbled the whole damned thing.
And when there was nothing left but the pit, when he had taken several pulls at the pit and then spit it out because there was nothing left to get off it, he kept screaming at them, and jumping at them, and flew away with the pit only to drop it over the tracks a couple seconds later.
I recycle paper, plastic, shopping bags, glass and cardboard. I take my used motor oil and oil filters and batteries to approved safe disposal sites. I take pride in owning an ULEV (ultra low emission vehicle) and keep it in good repair. I shook my fists at the republicans when they dropped out of Kyoto and at least once a month I complain about the fact that Ontario Hydro is so difficult to work with if a person wants to use solar to cut down their energy needs. I try, in general, not to take too much, and not to destroy the commons. Still I laughed for 5 minutes watching that little seagull, he was fabulous.
The other day I sat at the train station waiting for Amy's train to come in, when I noticed a small seagull approaching a large peach. I swear that peach must have been half the seagull's mass, it was at very least of size comparable to the seagull's torso. Far too much food for a single seagull, is what I'm getting at. He seemed pretty speculative at first, but I guess once he decided he was not above eating fruit with hair, he dug in. As is generally the case in this universe, other seagulls started to materialize, and I watched this seagull alternately jump around and scream and gobble down bites of that peach surrounded by 4 or 5 others.
Gobbled the whole damned thing.
And when there was nothing left but the pit, when he had taken several pulls at the pit and then spit it out because there was nothing left to get off it, he kept screaming at them, and jumping at them, and flew away with the pit only to drop it over the tracks a couple seconds later.
I recycle paper, plastic, shopping bags, glass and cardboard. I take my used motor oil and oil filters and batteries to approved safe disposal sites. I take pride in owning an ULEV (ultra low emission vehicle) and keep it in good repair. I shook my fists at the republicans when they dropped out of Kyoto and at least once a month I complain about the fact that Ontario Hydro is so difficult to work with if a person wants to use solar to cut down their energy needs. I try, in general, not to take too much, and not to destroy the commons. Still I laughed for 5 minutes watching that little seagull, he was fabulous.