An osprey to remind us of where we've come

The other week I was sitting on expressway stuck in traffic, with the smog and the fumes fanning around my little Corolla.  I was soo anxious to get out of town and escape to the Cherry Blossom Festival up in DC for the weekend, but the daily 7 mile back up getting into the tunnel was delaying my party-time aspirations.

The section of road I was parked on was a busy commuter interstate that winds right past a large military base.  If I seemed a frustrated driver, then this should not be compared to the plethora of oversized SUVs with "fuck Obama" stickers plastered all over them trying to get around all of the cars.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an osprey (Pandion haliaetus) fly right over carrying a large stick in its talons.  It preceded to lower the stick to the top of a large metal tower, which was maybe some sort of radio control tower or a monitoring defense apparatus to ensure that terrorists don't bomb the military base.  The tower was surrounded by a brackish water inlet coming off of the Chesapeake Bay.  I glanced at the bird confused.

I had almost forgotten.  It was springtime, and osprey had arrived back from their wintering grounds and were now building their nests.  Osprey build nests on level platforms surrounded by a large body of water.  That osprey was doing was ospreys have been doing for tens of thousands of years, and that twisted metal tower outside a grim military base just happened to be a convenient and safe spot to raise its young.

I suddenly...and rather unexpectedly, choked out a few tears.  I could not help but gaze at the osprey, flapping its wings hard to carry the stick over to the tower so it could construct its nest so nonchalantly and without contempt.  Perhaps it was reminding all of the commuters that no matter what kind of stressful world we're creating, they're going to simply do what they are adapted to do in a habitat that is not as far removed as what we might think from what they used to have, before we all drove ourselves crazy in traffic and worrying about terrorists.

The traffic finally let up and I was free.  

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