Cranes

Featured image: Crane III

“What’s that? Did you see them?” I asked my passengers as I was driving on a 55mph road as we went by way too quickly?

We were driving through a marshland where there was a low dip in the horizon of yellow green grasses and tamarack pines. It is always so beautiful because it is so different from the rest of the Northwoods landscape. In the fall, the tamarack pines turn a wonderful bright yellow, as do the tall grasses.

“What was that?” I exclaimed again. I added, “We just drove past 3 whooping cranes way too quickly, a mother and her 2 young ones. What is she doing so close to the edge of the road? Not a safe place for babies.” My thought immediately was, “I hope you guys make it.”

Whooping cranes are so elegant in flight. Their wings spread widely with very little flapping, just a simple motion, then a long glide. According to my research the young do not naturally learn to migrate south when the weather turns in the north. Some have tried to tough out the harsh winters of the Northwoods. Many don’t make it which is why they are on the endangered species list.

I wanted to return and put a protective cage around them so they would make it. Isn’t that typical of humans, to put the natural in a cage to save it. What they are really doing when they cage something is killing its natural instincts and changing them.

Will humans learn? Obviously not because there are so few of them now. Such a statement, but honestly so true. There is no letting them learn naturally. Which is better for them to cage them and change their natural instincts or to let nature to run its course?

What a good analogy for the human species in general. If we cage them, how do they ever learn? Just how much should we interfere with the natural course of things? How much should we remove from life to protect it? And, in the end we do just the opposite.