The BowerBird, Dodging Former Classmate and Just Musing

The Bowerbird is one of my favorite avian species. Why you ask well because there is an elaborate mating ritual that for me has always shed light on human behaviour. Some people are would not like to believe it but we have a lot in common with animals, many of the cycles of nature of the earth have mirrored parallels in our own life. I believe whether you believe that we  have a soul or not it is perhaps very important to look at Nature not just as a source of raw material to sustain some polluted, cancerous culture, but as a mirror showing ourselves, ourselves.

Why The BowerBird

I ran into so old classmates, I’ve been trying to dodge for years. They reek of mediocrity. What do I mean by that ? They are all married, they have a child. They spend their free time reading Ayn Rand, they talk about big business, and politics, how Obama sucks and what he should be doing to make this country better. They take these useless discussion to facebook where other like minded idiots posture and encourage each other to pontificate. It’s a circle jerk of futility, well maybe not because unlike a circle jerk, there is nothing to show for the the work and emotional stimulus.

When the talk isn’t about routes to work, wife problems, the economy and Obama it ventures to Local Sports teams or some hot chick on some TV show I don’t know about because I have not really watched TV in about 7 years. Yes I haven’t seen madmen, Game of Thrones, I never watched LOST, The Sopranos, Oz, and my life is better for it. I’m not totally clueless, when Netflix was cool I would watch some stuff etc. I made a self-deprecating joke with this classmates that now after all our education we are no better than animals that education is a farce to help us ascertain the tools necessary to attract a mate and live a certain predetermined life and die a ‘straw death’. The got the usual responce: “Oh MrMary’s Real Name, you always were crazy lol that is rich ” I smile and laugh and then find a way to break out of the convo and run for the hills. Check this out:

The most notable characteristic of bowerbirds is their extraordinarily complex courtship and mating behaviour, where males build a bower to attract mates. In and around the bower, the male places a variety of brightly colored objects he has collected. These objects — usually different among each species — may include hundreds of shells, leaves, flowers, feathers, stones, berries, and even discarded plastic items, coins, nails, rifle shells, or pieces of glass. The males spend hours arranging this collection. Bowers within a species share a general form but do show significant variation, and the collection of objects reflects the biases of males of each species and its ability to procure items from the habitat, often stealing them from neighboring bowers. Several studies of different species have shown that colors of decorations males use on their bowers match the preferences of females. Scientist have shown that mate-searching females commonly visit multiple bowers, often returning to the male several times, watching his elaborate courtship displays and inspecting the quality of the bower and tasting the paint the male has placed on the bower walls. Many females end up selecting the same male, and many under-performing males are left without copulations. Females mated with top-mating males tend to return to the male the next year and search less.

Did ya see that

Sometimes it’s humbling to look at nature. I have seen that the people who work with the earth and with nature carry natural silence and humility to themselves.  I don’t have to draw the parallels between the bowerbird courting rituals and the complex rituals humans go through to find and keep mates.  I have a hundred jokes and stupid sarcastics remarks ready to unleash but it’s not necessary.

Sometimes I while reading the papers or News Week  [btw nothing is real until it is reported in NewsWeek. Police brutality, corruption in politics, etc only exists because they have been reported in NewsWeek] I really feel that the university and society have become really adept at selling and indoctrinated hopelessly vapid dreams to the youth.

Indoctrination from Youth

On march 14th – National Pi Day, and National Steak and BJ day (I’m not kidding its National steak and BJ Day). I decided it was only apropos to recite Ophelia’s song form Hamlet for the sake of situational irony. My father tells me that I would not have been so smart if it wasn’t for all the sacrifices my parents made and sent me to best schools. Of course he added that I should try to do something with my life before I am 35 implying I haven’t lived up to my potential.

He them proceeded to show me all ‘His’ awards I had gotten for academic  excellence since kindergarten, acceptance letters, etc. I told him the second I get a chance I would use these awards for  toilet paper.  It so crazy, one takes a tests as a child and people deem you are smarted or gifted and then this strange ideology is crammed down your throat for years, everyone wants a chance to shape you to mold you into a leader for tomorrow, to mold you into some big time ‘Suit’ on Wall street. It’s impossible not to get caught up until you look into the mirror and are disgusted by what you see, but the catch is in many ways you have to go on even though you dont want to because “Cash rules everything around me”

Personally I roll differently. I want to live the fullest human experience. I want to live genuinely and sincerely. I find having a  9-5 job, mortgage payments kids to take of in an of itself to be meaningless to be no better than being an animal. To say it another way, I have always felt that there is more to life that what we are told we must achieve. I have tried to find out if there is more to human life than being a drone or a vast cog in a bureaucratic wheel, of course sometimes asking this kind of question put you at odds with consumer society because the desire to know to experience something authentic is not something which can be bought/purchased just like life.

Also I am well aware this is desire to find more to life is something that is unique to my persona and I am more than cool with that. It’s not for everyone and I never expected it to be, just my unique bent/angle on things. Maybe this is why I do crazy things like travel to India when I was 15, or dress up as a homeless person to walk around the block, or laughingly go drink for drink with my alcoholic sorta of ex-father in law in Vegas (that is a funny story I have to tell you guys about one day). I just cant hang with my classmates, they find me a bit odd and are dismissive of anything I say that doesn’t fall exactly into their ideology.

“Too often the people complain that they have done nothing with their lives and then they wait for somebody to tell them that this isn’t so.”
― Charles Bukowski, What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire