geese
While driving home today, I spotted some geese crossing the street. Actually, the first thing that I noticed was that cars up ahead were putting on their brakes. Immediately afterward is when I noticed why- the geese. As I drew closer, I realized that half of them were on one side of the road, and the other half were situated in the median between the lanes. The flock (about fifteen of them I think) was divided. The half that was stuck in the road were nervously milling around on the median, attempting to join the rest of their flock. But the cars weren't stopping. They slowed, went around, and kept going. The geese at the median couldn't cross.
I stopped my car.
I have a personality flaw which I despise more than any of the others. That is, I can't stand confrontation. I can't stand altering the flow of a situation. I can't stand even the possibility of inconveniencing someone. I don't know why. I've gotten better, slowly, over the years, but it's still a big issue.
I turned on my emergency blinkers.
The person behind me stopped. Not that they had too much of a choice. It was a four-lane road. Two lanes one way, a thin concrete median, and two lanes the other way. As I watched the geese, the half that had made it across waited patiently for the rest. The half at the median meandered nervously for a few moments. This in turn made me a bit nervous, because I was afraid of inconveniencing the person behind me. But, I stayed put. Little by little, the geese reformed- it was very interesting to watch them communicate in their own unique patterns- and began to cross the lane. However, cars in the parallel lane continued to pass, either oblivious or uncaring. The geese would start to cross, and then double back as cars kept coming.
I was beginning to doubt myself. I was beginning to give in to the flaw. To just go with the flow. Tuck my tail between my legs, shrug and grin stupidly, 'oops I uh, well bye', at someone's expense in order to satisfy someone else.
I didn't move.
The person behind me went around me.
Again I was tempted to go around the geese and keep moving. However, I knew that if I kept going, it was extremely unlikely that someone else was going to stop and wait patiently for the geese to cross. Two more people went by. A man in an SUV honked and made a gesture out his window. I didn't catch what it was, but I doubt that it signified 'Hello, nice weather we're having. Thank you for being so considerate towards these geese.'
Still I didn't move. Another aspect of my personality flaw is that I either give up way too easily, or I never give up even when I really ought to. Finally, someone in the parallel lane slowed to a stop beside my car. Immediately, the geese at the median gracefully followed one another into a swiftly-moving line, and crossed the street. There were one or two stragglers however, who still seemed to be very nervous about crossing. As they slowly made their way along, the other driver and I moved forward very slowly- one at a time-, guiding the stragglers towards the rest of the flock. When they were safely across, we went on our way.
I felt good about myself for a little while. Then I began to feel angry about the people who hadn't stopped. It led to way too much thinking, and now I'm here.
Why didn't they stop?
Why did I stop? Normally my reaction is to duck my head down, try to avoid attention, and choose the default option which hopefully will aggravate the least amount of people. Like a nervous cat does when you enter a room- crouches low to the ground and scampers by. Maybe I'm changing finally. Maybe I like geese more than I think. I don't know.
It made me think about the inconsideration those other drivers had for the geese. But why, why were they inconsiderate? They were in a hurry, obviously. They couldn't stop for ten seconds for courtesy's sake. Busy humans going about their busy lives.
Made me think about a lot of things.
Geese have probably been walking along that route long before we came and built roads there. I'm not going to go on a 'FUCKING HUMANS, ANIMALS HAVE MORE OF A RIGHT TO BE HERE THAN WE DO' rant and start torching apartments, but... It just makes me think. Roads. We built roads to make travel more convenient. But why would we need asphalt roads? For cars...to travel extremely long distances very quickly. Why would we need that? The geese walked a few yards. They probably don't live very far away from where they were coming from. Why do we?
Residential areas, industrial areas, entertainment areas, and the like. Zones and cities, amazing feats of engineering and architecture, all to support us. But why would we need such support and such a vast expanse of roads and cities and technology? In order to support our alarmingly high population.
The ebb and flow of evolution and natural selection balance animal life, from what I've learned. A species generally can't grow out of control on its own; it has natural enemies and is bound to certain climates and environments. But humans... We're different.
We're intelligent enough to find ways around many things which would otherwise prevent us from expanding our population to such insane levels. Technology, engineering, medicine, government. All designed to help us expand. We already had all we needed in order to survive. But we have created tools...enabled ourselves to expand- I believe- possibly more than we should have.
Humans are affected by many factors which effect the birth rate. Some occur naturally- homosexuality, for instance. Two men who fall in love and enter a relationship obviously can't bear new children. With the world population dramatically on the rise, it's natural that the percentage of people who are born homosexuals will also rise. It's just natural balance. If everyone was straight, could you imagine how much higher the population would be? Other factors, however, are man-made. Fertility drugs, for instance.
One would imagine that, as with animals, the human population would balance out because of these factors. That it would rise and fall steadily.
This has not been the case.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The earth possesses limited resources. Human beings possess an unlimited capacity to procreate.
I have and always will respect couples who come together and bring a new child into the world with love and responsibility. That's not the issue. On the other hand, I have issues with cultures based on turning vaginas into clown cars. Rape and unwanted children.
It's... just the entire world. Our species. The direction things are going. Peoples' quest to defy aging and death completely- could you imagine what immortality would do to the quality and value of life itself? We're becoming too clever for our own good. I could go on and on, but I'm really tired right now.
I mean it's not like I can change anything though. Not something that big..
I can stop for geese.
I stopped my car.
I have a personality flaw which I despise more than any of the others. That is, I can't stand confrontation. I can't stand altering the flow of a situation. I can't stand even the possibility of inconveniencing someone. I don't know why. I've gotten better, slowly, over the years, but it's still a big issue.
I turned on my emergency blinkers.
The person behind me stopped. Not that they had too much of a choice. It was a four-lane road. Two lanes one way, a thin concrete median, and two lanes the other way. As I watched the geese, the half that had made it across waited patiently for the rest. The half at the median meandered nervously for a few moments. This in turn made me a bit nervous, because I was afraid of inconveniencing the person behind me. But, I stayed put. Little by little, the geese reformed- it was very interesting to watch them communicate in their own unique patterns- and began to cross the lane. However, cars in the parallel lane continued to pass, either oblivious or uncaring. The geese would start to cross, and then double back as cars kept coming.
I was beginning to doubt myself. I was beginning to give in to the flaw. To just go with the flow. Tuck my tail between my legs, shrug and grin stupidly, 'oops I uh, well bye', at someone's expense in order to satisfy someone else.
I didn't move.
The person behind me went around me.
Again I was tempted to go around the geese and keep moving. However, I knew that if I kept going, it was extremely unlikely that someone else was going to stop and wait patiently for the geese to cross. Two more people went by. A man in an SUV honked and made a gesture out his window. I didn't catch what it was, but I doubt that it signified 'Hello, nice weather we're having. Thank you for being so considerate towards these geese.'
Still I didn't move. Another aspect of my personality flaw is that I either give up way too easily, or I never give up even when I really ought to. Finally, someone in the parallel lane slowed to a stop beside my car. Immediately, the geese at the median gracefully followed one another into a swiftly-moving line, and crossed the street. There were one or two stragglers however, who still seemed to be very nervous about crossing. As they slowly made their way along, the other driver and I moved forward very slowly- one at a time-, guiding the stragglers towards the rest of the flock. When they were safely across, we went on our way.
I felt good about myself for a little while. Then I began to feel angry about the people who hadn't stopped. It led to way too much thinking, and now I'm here.
Why didn't they stop?
Why did I stop? Normally my reaction is to duck my head down, try to avoid attention, and choose the default option which hopefully will aggravate the least amount of people. Like a nervous cat does when you enter a room- crouches low to the ground and scampers by. Maybe I'm changing finally. Maybe I like geese more than I think. I don't know.
It made me think about the inconsideration those other drivers had for the geese. But why, why were they inconsiderate? They were in a hurry, obviously. They couldn't stop for ten seconds for courtesy's sake. Busy humans going about their busy lives.
Made me think about a lot of things.
Geese have probably been walking along that route long before we came and built roads there. I'm not going to go on a 'FUCKING HUMANS, ANIMALS HAVE MORE OF A RIGHT TO BE HERE THAN WE DO' rant and start torching apartments, but... It just makes me think. Roads. We built roads to make travel more convenient. But why would we need asphalt roads? For cars...to travel extremely long distances very quickly. Why would we need that? The geese walked a few yards. They probably don't live very far away from where they were coming from. Why do we?
Residential areas, industrial areas, entertainment areas, and the like. Zones and cities, amazing feats of engineering and architecture, all to support us. But why would we need such support and such a vast expanse of roads and cities and technology? In order to support our alarmingly high population.
The ebb and flow of evolution and natural selection balance animal life, from what I've learned. A species generally can't grow out of control on its own; it has natural enemies and is bound to certain climates and environments. But humans... We're different.
We're intelligent enough to find ways around many things which would otherwise prevent us from expanding our population to such insane levels. Technology, engineering, medicine, government. All designed to help us expand. We already had all we needed in order to survive. But we have created tools...enabled ourselves to expand- I believe- possibly more than we should have.
Humans are affected by many factors which effect the birth rate. Some occur naturally- homosexuality, for instance. Two men who fall in love and enter a relationship obviously can't bear new children. With the world population dramatically on the rise, it's natural that the percentage of people who are born homosexuals will also rise. It's just natural balance. If everyone was straight, could you imagine how much higher the population would be? Other factors, however, are man-made. Fertility drugs, for instance.
One would imagine that, as with animals, the human population would balance out because of these factors. That it would rise and fall steadily.
This has not been the case.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: The earth possesses limited resources. Human beings possess an unlimited capacity to procreate.
I have and always will respect couples who come together and bring a new child into the world with love and responsibility. That's not the issue. On the other hand, I have issues with cultures based on turning vaginas into clown cars. Rape and unwanted children.
It's... just the entire world. Our species. The direction things are going. Peoples' quest to defy aging and death completely- could you imagine what immortality would do to the quality and value of life itself? We're becoming too clever for our own good. I could go on and on, but I'm really tired right now.
I mean it's not like I can change anything though. Not something that big..
I can stop for geese.