Insomniac

I woke up this morning REALLY early and try as I might, I could not get back to sleep. When you have insomnia, all sorts of things start running through your head. One thing kept replaying in my mind, so I thought, "What the hell, maybe I'll just get up and write about it--I can't sleep anyhow." And so this blog was born:

The other day I was driving Katie to her gymnastics practice (which doubles as a form of comic relief for me) and on the side of the road was a dead Sandhill Crane. I am assuming it was hit by a car, judging by its crumpled position, with feathers jutting out at weird angles. Now these birds are on the endangered species list where I live (or were, I haven't checked it lately) and they are heavily protected. Killing one of these birds can lead to serious fines or even jail time. But that has nothing to do with this story--just thought I'd throw that in for anyone out there thinking of mounting one over their fire place. So anyhow, I saw the bird in the ditch and thought what a pity to see this beautiful animal come to its final resting place like that. These birds live in pairs and mate for life. They are also fiercely protective of their babies (who are incredibly cute and fluffy little red guys). That part of the story comes in later. Standing near the corpse of the bird in the ditch was the mate. The bird kept looking at its dead partner as if it were willing it get up and go destroy someone's expensively sodded lawn in search of buried bugs to eat. But alas, the dead bird would not move. It was really a sad scene. Then I started thinking, "You know what? These birds who are supposed to be lesser creatures than us could teach us homo sapiens a few things about loyalty, devotion, and fidelity." How many people do you know who mate for life, taking no other partners unless their partner dies? How many do you know who would take on a full grown charging bull to protect their mate and/or baby? (I really witnessed this once.) Then I started thinking of ways we could get them off the endangered list and our spouses out of their extra-marital affairs. We could start a Sandhill Crane boot camp for wayward spouses. The cranes could teach them how to not be lying, cheating, bastards and we could feed the cranes in return so people will stop killing them for ruining their perfectly manicured lawns and golf courses. Then we could also start Sandhill Crane parenting classes for the assholes who leave their kids in the car when it's 98 degrees outside while they go shopping for new hot pants to wear to the club tonight, while their pit bull is left home to babysit the kids who survive the sweltering temperatures inside that car. We could have the Sandhill Cranes teach compassion and devotion lessons to all the jerks out there who care more about their sports car or their bank account than their family. I think there are lots of things we could learn from an animal with a brain the size of a walnut. Sometimes I'd rather see humans have better traits than just opposable thumbs and large brains. What good are all those brains and thumbs if you're a greedy, self-centered, thoughtless imbecile? May that deceased crane rest in peace and its partner find a new, equally devoted mate...and may we stop and think of the things that simpler beings can teach us about being better beings ourselves. (Hey I used the word being three times in one sentence--you don't see that every day!) Have a Sandhill Crane day!