Life and death in the backyard

by Nathan Natas 36 Replies latest jw friends

  • Nathan Natas
    Nathan Natas

    I live inside the Seattle city limits in an old residential neighborhood.

    During the winter I put out "bird pudding" made from oatmeal, margarine, birdseed, peanuts, etc. to help meet the nutritional needs of a family of crows that we share the neighborhood with. The crows, in turn, share their puddin' with a few pigeons and a few local squirrels. They all love the bird puddin!

    Just a few minutes ago there arouse such a clatter I went to the window to see what was the matter.

    A Cooper's hawk had just taken one of the pigeons, and the crows were trying to drive him off. Cooper Bird was unimpressed as he went about his business. Cooper's hawks kill their prey by squeezing them with their talons, causing the victim to suffocate, kind of as a boa constrictor or python would. Then when the prey is motionless the evisceration begins. There are feathers all over the yard right now.

    It's the circle of life.

    From the day we arrive on the planet
    And blinking, step into the sun
    There's more to see than can ever be seen
    More to do than can ever be done
    There's far too much to take in here
    More to find than can ever be found
    But the sun rolling high
    Through the sapphire sky
    Keeps great and small on the endless round

    It's the Circle of Life
    And it moves us all
    Through despair and hope
    Through faith and love
    Till we find our place
    On the path unwinding
    In the Circle
    The Circle of Life

  • snowbird
    snowbird

    If killing was meant to be, I wonder why it upsets us so?

    It is even upsetting to the animal kingdom.

    I hate it, yet I know it has to be - for now, anyway.

    Sylvia

  • Nathan Natas
    Nathan Natas

    I think killing upsets us earthlings because life is volatile, not because life was meant to be permanent.

    Do you believe that pigeons will live forever in Paradise Earth and that Cooper's hawks there will dine on spaghetti? Alan Watts described earth as a "mutual eating society." Squab, anyone?

    When the hawk has finished dining, I'll go out and conduct a Mass for the pigeon to hasten it's soul to heaven... which is a bit odd, since the pigeon spent a good portion of his life flying through those same heavens - but not trans-dimensionally. That reminds me - I'm almost out of frankincense!

  • snowbird
    snowbird

    Are you speaking of Alan Watt of the Cutting Through the Matrix trilogy?

    No, I don't believe in the Paradise Earth scenario as espoused by he WT, but I firmly believe that the whole creation is going to be set free from whatever it is that moves us to kill each other.

    Sylvia

  • ninja
    ninja

    it's a different guy snowb

  • purplesofa
    purplesofa

    We have been having alot of deaths in our backyard lately!

    purps

  • ninja
    ninja

    same here purps....my mother in law is under the patio

  • Nathan Natas
    Nathan Natas

    Hi Sylvia,

    No, this is the Zen Alan Watts, author of, among other things, The Book - On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.

    If the whole of creation is to be set free from whatever moves us to kill each other, why were so many creatures "designed" to kill in the first place? Why were parasites "designed" to eat their hosts from the inside out?

    The best argument against a first designer is a closer look at the actual design.

  • patio34
    patio34

    Hi Nathan,

    The violence so prevalent in nature is the main reason I left religion. To me, it supports mindless evolution, rather than a loving creator. Mark Twain posited in Letters from Earth that a creator would at the very least make a bit of analgesic to prevent such massive suffering. No, the whole prey and predator concept seems more logically evidence of evolution.

    HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!

    PO

  • ninja
    ninja

    and she's not under the patio on the post above

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