I started feeding hummingbirds this year (along with other wildlife; it's amazing the variety of critters one encounters in the city). I have feeders all around the house now, including an interesting domed one I picked up recently (keeps out the bees) hanging just outside my screen door. Big Boy is feeding as I type (sort of the on-site bully, but blood is never drawn and there's plenty for everybody...what can you do? shrug).
In the evening, they all come in for a late dinner. Long, drawn out drinks, and when they fly off for the last time of the day you can actually see them dragging their tight-as-a-grape little bellies behind them, off to the treetops to enter their nightly state of metabolic torpor which helps keep their little candles from burning out before morning's light and another day of feeding. Believe me when I say they are the first ones up in the AM and the last ones to say goodnight in the PM.
There he is again. It's been a little cooler the last couple of days here in the California desert, and they're venturing out of their shady hiding places a bit more. Sparkling little fish splashing in the atmospheric sea, and sometimes they'll almost let me touch them. Sometimes they'll wait outside the door as I refill a feeder, 3 or 4 hovering there outside the screen door. Little ruby throats pulsing with light. And I know all this is just space-time wiggling around, but so am I, and as I soar above the rooftops in search of nectar along with my little friends, I am reminded of the kindness of those who have set nectar out for me along the path of my journey. A bit self-serving of an observation, I'll concede :)
If you believe the logical consequence of antinatalism is hatred and personality worship, you are mistaken; on more than one level, as a matter of fact. Unfortunately, if you see things that way it is precisely because you never had a chance of seeing things any other way. Same here, for the freedom of the hummingsbird's flight is only contexual, and in absolute terms there is, indeed, no escaping the cage. You'll either spend your days in rage against the cage, or you'll learn to live with it. Either way, you're never getting out of that cage.
2 comments:
We have both Rufous and Black Chinned hummingbirds in our area. I recently found out that they also eat insects, including spiders. I never really bought into the whole Efilism thing. I'm more of a VHEMT kinda guy. Yes, the critters are awful to each other in ways, and I suppose ideally there would be no sentient life. The human brain evolved into a hideous monster. The history of that evolution is probably too bizarre and violent for us to even comprehend. Ritual cannibalism and the mimicking of predatory animals, among other things likely helped shape the insane human brain. There is even speculation that certain groups of apes would eat the brains of slain rivals, becoming addicted the hormones. The theory is that these are the apes that eventually became early humans.
Oh yeah! The way they eat bugs is they charge and then let the momentum carry the bug in. Everything they do is weird in the most wonderful way. Check out how they get behind waterfalls.
Yeah, ideally in my world neither I nor any or you would find themselves in this mess. Nobody ever said the universe was nice, or cared about us at all. Whoops, I'm sorry, people are saying that all the time, aren't they? Or at least that there's some Grand Justification at the end to make everything worthwhile.
However, we're here, apparently we've decided to remain here until we don't anymore, and I can think of no bigger waste of time than drooling in front a life-spelled-backwards wanger who exploits emotionally damaged young people in service to his own self-esteem issues.
Planning on doing some stuff on hobbies, if I manage to get around to it, ever, so stay tuned. And thanks for dropping by, Kirk.
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