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Friday, Apr. 4, 2025

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Carrion Luggage

by Robert Waltz

Rated: 18+ · Book · Opinion · #2336646

Items to fit into your overhead compartment

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.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Sum1 Is Home

about 6 hours ago
In response to "Through a Glass, Brightly"

I know this small fact because I worked in one, and I'm probably telling you something here that you already know.

Unlike Glass, uncured Rubber does flow, albeit VERY slowly. I worked at a Firestone Tire Factory for 6 years prior to my employment with Motorola. This process was explained sometime during my orientation tour (I think), I never forgot it for some odd reason. I was a Maintenance Technician then, I worked in the Curing Department. Before a tire (or rubber) is cured, it's called 'green rubber'. That's what this link refers to. Once cured (Vulcanized or Baked) it is no longer Green, and does not flow at all. In learning and seeing how a tire is built/manufactured, I was shocked to learn that the components (sidewall, rim, tread, etc.) all different rubber compounds are just glued together. The tread of your tire is automatically, and precisely cut by the tread machine (Dang It, I can't remember that machine's name!). Its ends are glued together by the tire builder at the Tire Machine. That thought scares me. This is why if you allow your tires to become under inflated and overheat, the tire will fall apart. I don't care how good the manufacturing process was, it will fall apart. (Shred itself). Scary. Very Scary.

https://www.panova.com/a-guide-to-rubber-overview/

Lazy Writer est 4/24/2008

about 7 hours ago
In response to "Through a Glass, Brightly"

I don't know if this is the same thing..I love to watch glass blowers. I livecto watch the heated glass flow slowly into the shape wanted.

I believe everything is connected to everything else. Learned that with my heart..kidneys..and blood..everything connected.

1 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

about 8 hours ago
In response to "Through a Glass, Brightly"

I agree, my writing fits the false conception of glass flowing ever so slowly. Maybe I just need someone to light a fire under me to speed up the process.

2 Like

Soldier_Mike

a day ago
In response to "What Do You Meaning?"

"Answer above my pay grade. Mikewrites only pawn in Game of Life."

1 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

a day ago
In response to "What Do You Meaning?"

What is the meaning of life? To be a motivational speaker, living in a van, down by the river.

2 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

Apr 2, 2025 at 2:22pm
In response to "Stat-Us Report"

Head to the brewery posthaste and order a pint of brown, STAT; I'll join you ASAP.

1 Like

tj wanderlust-words-in-motion

Apr 1, 2025 at 4:35pm
In response to "Study A Broad"

I think a big part of the problem is that old "See no evil.. speak no evil" which was cute with the three monkeys, but unfortunately too many people took it to heart. They don't see what's happening, they don't hear what's happening, and even when they do, they don't speak out.

2 Like

Quilli ☕

Apr 1, 2025 at 10:30am
In response to "Study A Broad"

What a great post! I appreciate your commentary on the article. At this point, I think we have stayed stateside since we believe our kids* still need us nearby. They had a meltdown when we mentioned we are considering moving to Georgia when my husband retires.

*son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughters
(collectively and lovingly referred to as "our kids".)

2 Like

Elisa, Stik of Clubs

Mar 31, 2025 at 9:09pm
In response to "Perhaps Pursuit"

As soon as I saw the author's name and how he was introduced, I thought This sounds familiar. Indeed, it was, and I can say that the book in question is less self help and more philosophical in approach. So of course I have some thoughts on this one.

Consequently, I wouldn't interpret that as general advice for everyone with depression. If the shrink was as good as the author says, then presumably, they reached that conclusion after some sessions.

Who says they didn't?

And, like I said, what makes someone else happy won't necessarily make you happy.

This one tends to piss me off when people try to emphasize that happiness is rooted in community and family rather than, say, work. As someone who struggles with finding a space in any community and has a rather ambivalent relationship with family, I get real annoyed when people scoff at the notion of work being happy and fulfilling. Yo, for some of us, it really is.

And although Americans spend more time and money chasing after happiness than any other country in the world, we’re still one of the most anxious and least happy of all the developed nations.

Lately I've seen multiple figures online state influencers are the catalyst for these feelings and behavior. I feel a strong compulsion to push back on that, given that this was a problem even before influencers were a thing. TO me, influencers are really a variation on a theme. That theme is not discussed enough, although it could be that it's been a tough endeavor truly wrapping our hands around it. Even I have struggled with this, myself.

A pessimist can only be pleasantly surprised; if they're not surprised, then they were right, and that feels good, too.

The older I get, the more I realize that constantly leaning into pessimism is a very easy path to nihilism, and that I find incredibly worrying. To me, pessimism often discourages action. We really cannot afford that in large quantities these days.

1 Like

Aiva Raine

Mar 31, 2025 at 4:43pm
In response to "Perhaps Pursuit"

LOL- LOVE and totally agree with, "how about the joys of pessimism and schadenfreude? A pessimist can only be pleasantly surprised; if they're not surprised, then they were right, and that feels good, too"

1 Like

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