Outlive the Bastards!

I was fortunate enough to spend some time at Magee Marsh recently to witness the annual migration of Warblers.  This little guy is a Canada Warbler.  Magee Marsh is only a rest stop as they make their way north to Canada.  I also got a chance to see and photograph a Blackpoll Warbler.  The Blackpoll travelled all the way from Peru and completes an 1800 mile non-stop flight over the Atlantic to get here….without a gps navigation system.  Birds get little respect.  But I give them credit where credit is due.  Actually, consider them the superior race.  I am convinced more and more every day that the human race is in decline.  What have we done that compares to the flight of the Warbler?  Not much if you ask me.  Every creature on this earth seems to be perfectly adapted for living on this planet except us humans.  It’s depressing.  Until I remember the words of Edward Abbey….“One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast….a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much; I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound men and women with their hearts in a safe deposit box, and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this; You will outlive the bastards.”