On the Brighter Side
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The Early Bird
“The early bird gets the worm.” Really? well not always.
It was a beautiful October day with that clear blue sky and the fall colors shining in the trees in the surrounding timber lands. We watched a cottontail rabbit hopping down a soybean row a few years ago while we were eating some lunch in the cab of the combine. Suddenly, a very determined hawk swooped down and tried to grab the bunny.
Run, bunny, run, which he did with the hawk being deterred by the bean stalks….crash, rattle, crash.
The poor bunny came to the end of the row and foolishly struck out over the harvested ground and headed for the bushes. The hawk grabbed him, but, unexpectedly, an even bigger hawk flew in and took the rabbit away from him.
The early bird was left without lunch after all the work he had done. I was rooting for the bunny, but nature sometimes has cruel ways, so his days ended. He was the low man in the food chain as usual.
It was such a beautiful October day with a sad ending for both the rabbit and the early bird, and I was a little sad myself, too. The only one who enjoyed a happy ending was the later bird who won the prize.
In nature it is still survival of the fittest, but with a little organization on the part of the bunny or the early bird the outcome could have been a different one. Each one needed some allies to fend off the aggressor. That seems to work in the human world, at least sometimes.
“Oh, if you’re a bird be an early bird.
And catch the worm for your breakfast plate.
If you’re a bird, be and early early bird.
But if you’re a worm, Sleep late.”
-Shel Silverstein
-MG
Contributed by Marilyn Goodwin
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