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Carrion Luggage  Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem. This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it. It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans. It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier." I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination. |
| I know what day it is, but I'm just going about my business, here. This bit is from HuffPo, which I don't usually read, but this one caught my attention. I Moved Abroad For A Better Life. Here’s What I Found Disturbing During My First Trip Back To America.  “The hardest part wasn’t seeing these differences – it was realizing I could never unsee them.” Well. Okay. I guess some people need to push outside their envelope to see what's inside it. When I left America last spring for a safer home for my family and a better quality of life, I thought the hardest part would be adapting to life in the Netherlands. It's nice to have the privilege to just up and emigrate somewhere, isn't it? Like, if you don't like your life in whatever country you're in, boy it sure would be nice to have another country you can go to where you're not treated like something lesser or illegal. “We just hired Riley’s college consultant,” my friend Jackie mentioned casually, sipping her drink. “Five thousand for the basic package, but you know how it is these days. Everyone needs an edge.” "Everyone needs an edge." Yeah. Think about that for a moment. When everyone gets an edge, nobody gets an edge. Or, perhaps, people able to drop five grand on the edge end up winning, which perpetuates the whole cycle of economic disparity. How could I explain that everything — from the massive portions before us to the casual acceptance of paying thousands to game the education system — suddenly felt alien? That I’d spent the past eight months in a place where success wasn’t measured by the size of your house or the prestige of your child’s college acceptance letters? Congratulations; you've achieved an outsider's perspective. The Dutch principle of “niksen” ― the art of doing nothing ― replaced our American addiction to busyness. We had him once, but he was forced to resign. Okay, bad Nixon pun. Seriously, though, how could you not see the problem when you were living here? Too busy, I guess. Living abroad hadn’t just changed my zip code — it had fundamentally altered how I viewed success, relationships and the American Dream itself. In the Netherlands, I’d learned that a society could prioritize collective well-being over individual achievement. But that's... that's... soshulizm! What I’ve learned is that feeling like a stranger in your own country doesn’t have to be purely painful — it can be illuminating. It shows us that another way of life isn’t just possible, it’s already happening elsewhere. I don't mean to be mean, but I've spent comparatively little time abroad and didn't need to spend any to figure out that what passes for culture in the US is fucked. Some people really do thrive on it, though, and it's good to have choices. Maybe we need more people willing to step outside the fishbowl and then return with fresh eyes. Maybe we need more voices saying, “This isn’t normal, and it doesn’t have to be this way.” And maybe some people can figure it out without having to spend a year living in another country. Because not everyone can do that. So, I hope you haven't spent this entire entry looking for an April Fools' prank. If you did, now is when I reveal that the only prank is that there was no prank. April Fools! |
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