Baby Birds and the Future of the Human Race

Zipping along in a hurry to get to work, I saw a bird in the right lane that I assumed would fly away when I got near enough. It did not. It make a few unsure hops towards the curb, and stopped as I swerved around it.

I realized it was a baby bird, not yet able to fly. Normally it would have been obvious to me to get to work on time rather than mess with the trivial issue of a baby bird on the road - but reason did not prevail. I found a place to turn around and drove back, hoping I would reach it before someone's tire did.

Eventually I was driving slowly past the spot where it was, and I saw it on the grass by the curb. I stopped my car in the right driving lane and hoped I would not cause an accident. Visions of President Lincoln stopping on the way to a meeting to help a pig out of a mud pit flashed through my mind. I got out and easily picked it up in my hands. It gave a squalk, then tried to eat my finger, while I looked around for a safe place to put it.

Next to the side walk was an immense stone wall, with no break within sight. Overhead, two robins were chirping frantically in the trees. There was no nest to be seen. Full of misgivings, I set the baby bird down under the parents, as close to the wall as possible, hoping that the parents could figure out some way of keeping it out of the road. It seemed pretty hopeless.

Why go to all that trouble and care for a baby bird, when next to me several dozen acres had just been cleared for a new building, with untold destruction to hundreds of creatures which had found a home there? As someone said, it mattered to the bird.

And why go to all the trouble of saving the earth from global warming? We are, after all, only one planet of theoretically billions, which may have life far more intelligent than ours. Why bother? Because it matters to us.

It is not logic that drives us to preserves life, nor to get out of bed in the morning. There is some passion deep within us that we do not control. It is because meaning is found deep inside, and not from some religious edict or logical conclusion of what we should do.

I find myself today more distracted by the thought of tires and feathers than melting icebergs. Today, that is closer to home. Tomorrow may be another story.

Comment posted by Anonymous
at 6/27/2006 11:54:00 PM
Gene, your comments bring some things to mind. I remember seeing a peeping bird that couldn't or wouldn't fly, standing up to a barking dog that had the bird backed up against a curb, so I scared the dog away.
I heard the story about Lincoln and the pig, that he helped it get unstuck from a fence, so in school I drew a picture of that, and I didn't understand why my teacher didn't like it, until years later when I realized she must have thought it looked like Abe was having sex with the pig.
I, too, have thought about the idea that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe, but we only know of it on our own living planet. But suppose that somehow there is a universal life force that focuses itself all in one place, which happens to be our planet? But any way you figure it, life on Earth (Gaia) is precious and we must save it! Andy

Comment posted by Gene
at 6/26/2006 7:12:00 PM
I got the journal fixed - my host switched servers, and I was pointing to the wrong one. Thanks for noticing.

Comment posted by Heidi
at 6/26/2006 7:11:00 PM
I love the story -- I have been there when you rescued birds before, too.

BTW - your journal only goes up to June 12 -- that last couple of posts seem to be missing.