Winner Take All

There is a long-ingrained, learned and practiced impulse some of us old school people retain long into retirement… an urge to step into situations that arises suddenly,  to get involved in quarrels that have nothing to do with us… quarrels that we don’t understand.  

Today while I sat minding my own business in the food court at a shopping center down the hill from where I live, I became aware of a little drama that unfolded under a table a few feet from where I sat. It was very much like playground disagreements that I once-upon-a-time thought I should step into and resolve.  The quarrel was over food. Anybody who has been been in school for as may years as I worked in them will know what I mean.  Whose food was it?  That’s a reasonable starting point… but in this situation that question was moot.  The quarrel was clearly over found food… a crust of bread.

…and it was a bird quarrel, a fuss between a bigger bird and some small sparrows.  Of course, it’s the kind of situation a teacher likes.  The big bird hadn’t come upon the found food first.  The sparrows were pecking happily away at the crust when the bigger bird flew over, saw the little birds with their prize, circled back and floated down and announced its presence, clearly challenging and warning.  The little ones kept right on pecking.  The big one did the familiar bully strut before chasing the little ones away.  Then… and this is what gets to the old teacher’s attention every time… the big bully bird gloated. If there’s anything that gets an old teacher’s attention more quickly than a gloating bully, I don’t know what it is.  I happened to have my camera in hand; so, of course, I needed evidence before I could step in and save the day for the little guys…

By the time I got the pictures, I had become aware that the quarrel had nothing to do with me… their world was not the same as mine… the issues were not the same as the issues in people playgrounds and people cafeterias… I’ve got some more thinking to do about this, but today I figured there are some things in the natural world I should leave alone.

The second bigger bird that came along had the good sense to go somewhere else to look for something to eat.