True Vermin

After some therapy earlier this morning I took time out to "walk round the block" where I'm fortunate to live. It took about twenty  minutes, and one of my first observations was the seagulls in flight over the water.

They are much maligned birds in our coastal community because of their voracious appetites and fearless relationship with man. In our environment they revel in OUR voracious appetites by sifting through OUR waste, particularly food waste. They even dare to steal our food out of our hands - before it has become waste. We say they are "vermin."


Yet today I watched them in THEIR environment - over the waves, through the sea air, round rocky ledges. Wheeling, soaring, occasionally beating their wings yet mostly gliding using currents and thermals, they moved effortlessly and with grace - in their world. It was poetry in motion.


So, although their bellies may have been full of OUR waste - perhaps the leavings of  "Chicken a la Dust Carte" - they still only ate enough for their immediate needs. Their soaring flight patterns were not weighed down by excess gluttony, and when they landed on the azure blue of the inshore waters they did not sink.

No - they are still the masters of their own environment and adaptable masters of the interface where theirs and ours meet, here on the coast.

Plus - I'd venture to point out that in global terms, the true vermin is not the common gull but the common man; i.e. ourselves! The more we respect our environment the better it is for everything that lives - and that includes the environment. Is it HARD?

“Is it hard?'
Not if you have the right attitudes. Its having the right attitudes that's hard.” ~  Robert M Pirsig,
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - An enquiry into values"