Everyone wants to eat;even the hawk who was on our bird feeder this morning. I'll call him Howie.
Howie wanted to eat the little junco(Junior) who had somehow managed to get caught inside the feeder. How Junior got inside,I have no idea. Inside the feeder, this little bird was in a cage. Hungry Howie the hawk could not get in and terrified Junior the junco could not get out.
I love those little birds who come to our feeders in the winter;the juncos,blue jays, cardinals and mourning doves. I want them to be safe when they come. I want my backyard to be their sanctuary,where they can eat but not be eaten!
I love Howie the hawk, too. I just don't want him eating the birds I'm trying to protect. When I went outside and yelled at him, he just sat there on top of the feeder. So I told him, "I understand that you are a carnivore. I know you need to eat to live." He flew up a few feet into the weeping cherry tree.
"But", I said,"I don't want you eating here!"
As I moved quickly toward him, he flew off.
Arriving at the feeder, I opened the top flap, turned it upside down and gently shook. The junco
fell out and took off flying. I can imagine hearing little Junior shouting out: "Free at last!" I then filled up the bird feeder with nourishing seeds for Junior and all his buddies who feed there every day.
Howie the hawk is a predator by nature. Helpless smaller birds who can't get away look like a godsend to him. He's programed that way by the Creator. So, I can't really blame him for trying to stay alive.
Human beings seem a little different to me. Some humans, maybe Wally the Wall Street banker guy for example, appear to feed on all of us smaller birds in order to get fatter and fatter. I'm believing that they could change if they'd wake up to the damage they are doing. I don't think they have to act in a predatory or destructive manner.
Until all the Wally guys do wake up, we could use some tougher regulations to prevent them from fattening up on us Juniors. Each individual Wally may believe "Greed is good and I'm entitled to make all I can off of the system." But Wally, Obesity is a killer!
What the rest of us could do is refuse to play the game. We don't have to take the role of prey. We can build our local communities by buying locally, investing locally and accelerating the development of our local economies every way we can. We can put our life energies into real wealth creation. We can treasure our land, our water, our neighborhoods,our schools,communities of faith, and work to release those who are trapped in cages of poverty.
