An anomaly was in the world for a relatively short time. A small bird hatched late last spring. Due to a birth defect it was unable to fly. I don't think that it was even aware that it was a flying animal. It ran along the ground and hopped up into smaller trees when it felt threatened. It made a living feeding on the grain that other birds scratched out of one of our bird feeders. My wife and I would see it feeding and jumping around our porch patio and yard every day for months. Then in mid November, it just disappeared. We looked for it for days, but it was truly gone. I'd been noticing a fox hanging around for the last few weeks. We could only surmise that it provided a meal for one of them.
For some reason we were saddened by its apparent demise. You see, we raise chickens and turkeys and butcher them for meat. We usually buy them as chicks and raise them to butchering age ourselves. Even though we are in close contact with these birds, we don't feel a sense of loss when they are killed. I think I know why the passing of a small deformed bird has impacted us so. It was struggling to survive and prosper against tremendous odds. It seemed to be quite content to do what it was doing. It didn't have the capacity to comprehend adversity. It survived in spite of and completely unaware of the hand nature had dealt it. Then to have it killed by a predator a little higher up the food chain after surviving its disabilities, to us it seemed harsh. Then we realized that that's the way life works. There is no such thing as “fairness” in the real world. We are born, we live for a while and we die. There are no guarantees! Nobody owes us anything. If we prosper and live to into old age, we should consider ourselves lucky.
