Weird Sort of Dark Moment.

Thursday, April 24, 2008 at 5:30pm
Our yard has been seeing a lot of traffic these days. I've been noticing every morning that we have a dozen or more robins hopping around the back yard. Today the boy was playing quietly downstairs, Janet was at work, and the girls were at school. I was having a coffee and watching them hop around, and for a moment it was really peaceful and serene. Then one of them pecked at the ground and tore a worm out in an ugly and violent movement. The worm seemed to tear in half, with half of its body in the ground, and the other half in the robin's mouth. A little bird heartbeat later and the robin pecked into the ground again and got the half that it had missed. In an instant what was a serene moment for me turned into an exhibition of uber-violence. All of the robins in my yard were essentially doing the same thing, as dozens more were in the park across the alley from us.
I was watching a quiet massacre, and maybe I was in a morbid state of mind, but it occurred to me what a fragile and tender thing life is. In an instant, the blink of an eye, a thing can go from living to dead. Then it also occurred to me, that if one has to die, I think it would be best to do so in a swift and blinding instant of violence, rather than slowly and consciously.
Anyway, the jist of it all is this.
No more birdwatching for me