PREDATORS
On a recent Spring morning, I spent a fair amount of time watching the activity at our bird feeder. Sparrows, chickadees, and an occasional cardinal jostled for position and took turns getting a morning snack.
One trait, common to all of these birds, was constant vigilance. One bite, a look upwards, another bite, a head twisted round, and so it went, eyes looking everywhere, the bird on alert. But why? What did each bird fear? We live in a peaceful suburban complex, with no forests where hawks might lurk, few cats and none that could reach the feeder. So it must be instinct, fearful behavior where no predators exist.
I wonder what predators we fear and when the fear is justified. Most of us fear lightning, snakes, and sharks when in the ocean. But these are not predators or dangers that are in any way likely to get us. We may fear airplane flights, although the risk is low, or fear heights, although protected by a high railing.
Public figures have special fears. Baseball players fear slumps, yet take steroids that may well be a silent predator. Authors fear writer’s block. Musicians, actors, and other performers fear fallow periods, then take substances that will guarantee downtime.
Many politicians fear controversial issues. Yet those that speak out are widely respected. The White House fears release of pertinent information, voluntarily or through leaks; and so it stonewalls, revises reports and invokes executive privilege as though truth were the predator. Its imperious concentration on non-existent weapons of mass destruction as the predator has created a more perilous world.
We often let the wrong predator worry us, and fail to summon the correct instinctual response. Bankruptcy or poverty in old age is not a friendly concept, but the real predator may be a credit card that lets us accumulate more goods than we could possibly need. High gas prices take the headlines, but we could drive less and buy more sensible cars. We have a rational worry about mugging; however, more danger exists on the highway than on city streets at night. And it’s doubtful that gay marriages are dangerous predators that constitute a threat to any conventional marriage.
It’s axiomatic that life is about choices. Let’s choose the real predators – be it deficiencies in education, run-down cities, real terrorists, world poverty, whatever – and not twist our heads in the wrong direction.
On a recent Spring morning, I spent a fair amount of time watching the activity at our bird feeder. Sparrows, chickadees, and an occasional cardinal jostled for position and took turns getting a morning snack.
One trait, common to all of these birds, was constant vigilance. One bite, a look upwards, another bite, a head twisted round, and so it went, eyes looking everywhere, the bird on alert. But why? What did each bird fear? We live in a peaceful suburban complex, with no forests where hawks might lurk, few cats and none that could reach the feeder. So it must be instinct, fearful behavior where no predators exist.
I wonder what predators we fear and when the fear is justified. Most of us fear lightning, snakes, and sharks when in the ocean. But these are not predators or dangers that are in any way likely to get us. We may fear airplane flights, although the risk is low, or fear heights, although protected by a high railing.
Public figures have special fears. Baseball players fear slumps, yet take steroids that may well be a silent predator. Authors fear writer’s block. Musicians, actors, and other performers fear fallow periods, then take substances that will guarantee downtime.
Many politicians fear controversial issues. Yet those that speak out are widely respected. The White House fears release of pertinent information, voluntarily or through leaks; and so it stonewalls, revises reports and invokes executive privilege as though truth were the predator. Its imperious concentration on non-existent weapons of mass destruction as the predator has created a more perilous world.
We often let the wrong predator worry us, and fail to summon the correct instinctual response. Bankruptcy or poverty in old age is not a friendly concept, but the real predator may be a credit card that lets us accumulate more goods than we could possibly need. High gas prices take the headlines, but we could drive less and buy more sensible cars. We have a rational worry about mugging; however, more danger exists on the highway than on city streets at night. And it’s doubtful that gay marriages are dangerous predators that constitute a threat to any conventional marriage.
It’s axiomatic that life is about choices. Let’s choose the real predators – be it deficiencies in education, run-down cities, real terrorists, world poverty, whatever – and not twist our heads in the wrong direction.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home