Seagulls
by
Theresa Chaze

I lost my temper yesterday. Today, I am not ashamed nor do I regret the harsh words that followed as I verbally bloodied my claws on an old man. Why would I attack strange man in the middle of Meijer’s parking lot? Seagulls. The most unpretentious birds ever created, whose natural scavenger talents make the world a little cleaner. He attacked them for no reason with his car; he narrowly missed running over several and nearly hit a parked car.
I had just gotten out of my car and I stopped to watch a small flock clean up some french fries off the asphalt. That’s what they do; they clean up--parking lots, beaches, anywhere there is a free meal. Mother Nature created sea gulls to be her cleaning team. Like any carrion bird they clean up the remains after the life cycle has been completed. In addition, their acrobatic flying is secondary only to eagles. They can float on air currents for miles, effortless dipping to scoop up a snack from the water surface before returning to the lofty heights.
So why did he attack them? His excuse was they aren’t a protected species, so it was all right for him to run them over. I compared him to an anus. He was shocked when I accused him of animal abused and pointed out he hadn’t actually hit any of them. It wasn’t for lack of trying. He simply didn’t understand why I was making a big deal; they were only sea gulls. In his opinion they are loud, obnoxious pests that the world would be better off without.
What I don’t understand is why he felt he was entitled to do harm to another living creature. They weren’t attacking him, nor were they intruding in anyway on his life. They were simply having a lunch of discarded french fries. They weren’t even his french fries. Yet he thought nothing of trying to kill them. There are two reasons to kill--to have lunch and to keep from being lunch. Everything else is just ego driven garbage. When people fight and kill for land, mates or beliefs, they don’t actually win anything. When all is said and done, you can't take any of it with you. People are reclaimed by the land. Mates part. Beliefs are individual and change with perspective. The only things that are truly carried forward are the love we share, the wisdom we learn, and the results of our actions. Everything else is just a moment in time that quickly passes without notice.
So I lost my temper yesterday. Did I change anything? I don’t know. Mostly likely I will never know if my harsh language was enough to make him think about his actions and change his behavior. It said more about me, than it did about him. My anger got his attention, but did it really reach him? Was he capable of understanding my message? Or was it a simple exercise for me to prove I could draw a line in the sand and stand up for another living creature.
Alone I can’t stop wars, nor can I heal the hatred and fear, which creates them. But I can make a difference. Even if it’s only in the life in a flock of sea gulls.