07 August 2007

A Lesson In Contrasts...
There is little doubt that our world is filled with situations so diametrically opposed to one another that most days, we just shake our heads and wonder WTH is going on, and why we have to be privy to this.
One the one hand, you have the depravities of humankind in every shade and hue imaginable, while on the other hand, you have the beauty of nature and it's near infinite ways of making the worst day seem somehow better.
Now I'm not going to launch into some tree-hugging session about the environment, nor am I ready to start a tirade over the seemingly endless methods that people have ways of inflicting themselves upon others, with the predictable results. This is just my take on some recent activities...that's all.

As those of you who frequent this blog already know, my neighborhood basically SUCKS...plain and simple. No beating around the bush on that one. To be more accurate, though, I should say that the PEOPLE in my neighborhood suck. Because, if it were not for the people around us, this place would be damn tolerable, bordering on becoming a nice place to live.

Take for example the one bold-as-brass asshole living in the next block up....comes outside in his "wife-beater" undershirt, baggy pants belted about his lower thighs, plaid underwear showing like some baboon's bright red ass during mating season with a joint in his hand. It must have been some "good shit", as he was coughing to beat the band.

So there he walked...to the corner, and then back to his house, again and again, looking back and forth the whole time he was toking and coughing. Not one police car around, either. And he got to smoke the whole thing without being interrupted. This type of occurrence happens all too often around here, and no matter HOW many anonymous "tips" you send to Crimestoppers (I must be the reason they've had SO many more tips this year...all my online submissions), I don't see people like THIS being shut down. They're like the proverbial "bad penny", mucking up the machinery of society.

But that's at one end of the spectrum.

At the OTHER end is being able to look out back at the hummingbird feeder as not one, but TWO of these marvelous creations comes for "breakfast", while doing their little flirtatious aerial maneuvers about the garden.
To use a hackneyed word: AWESOME!
Having only seen hummingbirds at the ZOO back in Philly (or in library books), I was amazed at the first time I saw them HERE in the "wild" as it were...and I'm almost 55 years old, so you know that there's not much that amazes me at MY age...LOL! My wife and I had purchased a feeder 2 years ago, in the hope we could lure a hummingbird to OUR yard (we had seen them in a neighbor's yard). And to our amazement, we began to have these guys stop by. It was like "If you hang it...they will come"...sort of a "GARDEN of Dreams".

Now the differences between that blunt-smoking pothead and this little hummingbird are as far apart is East is from West, right? Here's this minuscule bird, flapping his wings 30+ times a SECOND, getting ready to migrate to frigging MEXICO...and he (or she) is in MY yard...right here...right now. That just blows me away...almost as much as watching the Swallowtail and Monarch butterflies flutter about our flowers.
It's peaceful to watch them to say the least. But there's always that thought that people like "saggy-drawers potboy" live within a stone's throw of this minute piece of reverie we've managed to obtain lurking in the back of your mind.

This actually makes a good case for becoming xenophobic.....the wildlife is much "tamer" than the general populace..at least in MY area. it's like the old bumper sticker: "The more people I meet, the more I like my dog (or cat)". The person who thought that up MUST have been from Fort Wayne, INDIANA...!

So...although the moments of being quasi "one with nature" are all too fleeting, it still IS nice to be able to just sit and watch these creatures go about their daily business. Sure beats the hell out of watching the OTHER (two-legged) creatures go about THEIR business.

Damn shame these idiots around here can't appreciate what our Maker has for them to enjoy every day. Then again, when you can't see past you next "rock" or joint, or 40oz, what can you expect?
But there is one thing I won't do for these "people" around here...show THEM pity.
They don't even deserve that.

I'd much rather spend time and energy giving the lesser creatures of this good Earth that which THEY need instead...

The return on THAT investment is much more satisfying...to ALL concerned.

5 comments:

Jen said...

I *love* hummingbirds. We have about a dozen that frequent our feeders. Nature beats the heck out of society.... hence why I prefer living in the "sticks". You should put up a big privacy fence and turn your backyard into a nature filled peaceful retreat. Then you could escape your wonderful view of hell, I mean Fort Waste, I mean Fort Wayne.

Bob G. said...

Jen:
I "wanted" to build a 20 ft. high sound-proof barier (like along I-469), as well as place a MOAT around the property, but I couldn't get past those danr city permits...!

;)

B.G.

Jana said...

If we ever get the chance, we should all get together at my grandmother's in MS.

She not only has hummingbird feeders, but she has A LOT of bluebird houses.

They're SO beautiful!

Bob G. said...

Nah...you're grandma might not take too kindly to this here "city boy" becoming a squatter after I see how NICE it is down there...LOL!

B.G.

Jana said...

LOL, she wouldn't mind.

*wink*

As long as you have good morals and common sense, it's all good.