In spring of 2018 a mockingbird started attacking me as I came into work. He was protecting his nest in a tree near the door to my building. Despite the fact that I watched for him and defended myself, even during quarantine when almost nobody else was here, he continued to attack each spring. Eventually I took an alternative route in spring. This week I came in through that entrance because I was bringing things with me and it’s closer to the elevator and was shocked to not be attacked. When I mentioned it in the department office, one of the other professors told me that a few weeks ago a falcon had found the nest and killed and eaten the birds. I’m kind of sad, because it’s the end of an era and will never again be part of my morning routine at work. It is however also the circle of life.
Nature isn’t evil, and evil isn’t necessarily in our nature. As humans we sometimes ascribe negative denotations to people for things that are natural. However, in our dog eat dog world, if it comes down to a question of your survival or mine, you must confess that you would try to fight to survive. It is the nature of all living things to want to survive and reproduce. Most parents will steal or fight to feed their children or in some cases to feed themselves. So some crime isn’t because we are evil but because we are trying to survive. In fact that’s the narrative sometimes when the news decides to defend indigence.
Falcons are not evil because they kill mockingbirds. Most animals are omnivores, which means they can eat plants and animals. In order to survive, we must eat other living things, or at least parts of them. I don’t eat the entire plant, but I do harvest and enjoy tomatoes. I don’t eat the entire plant, but I do harvest and enjoy apples. You can also eat parts of some animals like lobsters and crabs and they will grow back and survive. Unfortunately for falcons, they are birds of prey and therefore eat only other birds. Falcons cannot survive on nuts or berries. Sure they could eat pigeons, but the mockingbirds were pretty aggressive, and an intelligent hunter would be eventually able to locate and attack the nest. And he did.
It is not evil to want to survive. Yes, the way we win matters, but we are also animals at the end of the day. Survival matters more. Soldiers kill other soldiers. Anteaters kill ants. Not even fungi confine themselves strictly to the already dead as a food source. The cherry I just popped into my mouth had cells that were still alive. Since it didn’t scream as I disemboweled it, we feel less churned about it than we would watching a falcon rip a bird apart, and because it doesn’t have a face, we cannot watch the emotion as others in the bowl watch us eat their friends and family. My coworker heard the screams of the other mockingbird as the falcon killed its mate and watched the falcon rip up the other bird. It bothered her. It would be wrong to condemn the falcon for killing these mockingbirds. This is what falcons do to survive.
It is also sometimes wrong to condemn our fellow men for their trespasses. While some crime is personal, some of it is also circumstantial. The law makes room for this with terms like differentiating murder from manslaughter. Both are heinous. One is worse. We do not know what moves a man to trespass against another. If he is starving or hallucinating, if he feels oppressed or depressed, if he feels like he has no other option, we respond differently. A soldier stealing for plunder is treated differently than one who steals because he is starving or because he needs paper for his house of easement. We are taught as Christians not to judge on outward appearances because only the Lord can see the heart, and that’s where He looks. The why of our actions also matters in addition to the what.
All tragedy is sad. I am sad because those birds lost their lives. I will actually miss being bombarded by them. However, I cannot pick and choose which prey the falcon eats. Just because it doesn’t just eat birds I don’t know and don’t like doesn’t mean I can hate on the falcon. It exists to control the population of other birds. There are natural checks and balances on life. He wasn’t doing it to spoil a memory or my day or destroy a family. Falcons have children to feed too. It is more sad when people do things they don’t need to do that hurt other people. And it is saddest when we are venom on people without trying first to ascertain their motives. In this way we could learn a lesson from the falcon and not think with the same bird brain. God after all endowed us with reason and for good reason. Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord and though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as snow. For with what judgement we judge we shall be judged, and sometimes men are not evil. Sometimes they are falcons.
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