Monday, March 5, 2012

Broken Seagull…follow up to Broken Turtle...



The single most popular post that I have written is “Broken Turtles…” I’m not totally sure why it became so popular, but it’s double the number two all-time post and more than numbers 8, 9 and 10 combined. I’m glad people have read it and I hope it was funny and thought provoking, but I’m not fully sure what made it successful. 
As you know already, things like this make me think and question. Here are some thoughts about broken turtles:


Should I start naming all my posts using the word broken? (broken nose, broken burrito, broken meow, broken graduation, broken sandcastles, broken hair, broken toe (wait, that one actually happened…))
Should I start including animals in every title? (frog, wildebeest, orangutang, jaguar, horse, hippopotamus (I’m singing that Christmas song now), peacock, spider (kinda hope it’s already broken), Tasmanian devil, etc.)
Should I start breaking things to create blog interest?
Should I break another turtle? (just kidding, and no, I did not break the first one)
Should I start a new blog exclusively about turtles?
Should I try to find Mr. Turtle in the creek for a follow up interview?
Should I stop at the top of my blog writing game? How can I possibly beat the turtle?
Should I start hanging out at the creek, looking for more broken amphibians (wait, a turtle is a reptile)? 
Should I have captured Mr. Turtle the day I saw him, and set up an agent with TV spots?
Should I focus on a new broken turtle rescue program?
Should I start posting about different types of turtles?
Should I have found Mr. Turtle’s Mom? 
Obviously the thoughts can go on forever…
Today’s post is actually about a broken seagull, thus the title. The picture I took is horrific and doesn’t show a thing for you to understand what I was thinking, or even what I saw.
I saw these seagulls in a parking lot near about 5 fast food restaurants. It’s kind of obvious why they were hanging out there - free food! I tried to get some too, but seagull bills really hurt...
The broken thoughts, i had, were not:
Should I drive quickly through the parking lot to see how many I can hit?
Should I speed up and slow down so as to not get bird-bombed?
Should I throw some food out and see how many dive for it, and the ensuing fight?
Should I throw food on someone else’s car and see how badly it gets bird-bombed?
My broken thoughts were these:
I saw probably 50 seagulls, but one was hopping on one foot. I spent the next five minutes watching it hop around and tried to get a better picture and some video, but to no avail. It wasn’t just hopping and letting one foot hang, it only had one foot! I just started to wonder…
What happened to this bird?
Did it get run over?
Did another bird attack it?
Just how close is middle Tennessee to the ocean?
Do the other birds give it sympathy?
Could he get enough food to survive?
Was he the bird version of an MMA fighter (they have cauliflower ears, birds lose their legs)?
Would the other birds give him some help?
Was he a victim of some terrible bird crime? A drive-by feather-flogging?
Is he in pain?
Do the other birds stare at him?
Does he feel insecure when they stare?
Was it some sort of birdbrained scheme gone wrong?
I was immediately struck with some personal thoughts, too:
Do I care for the needs of others around me?
Do I even notice that there are needs?
Do I notice other’s pains?
Would I help if I actually saw the need?
Do I just stare at others needs or actually take the next step to assist?
I know my questions are crazy, but we miss so much in life if we don’t think about what God puts in front of us. I know that God cares even about birds (think of the sparrow), so I think we can take a simple lesson from them, can’t we?
Lessons Learned: I miss so many people’s needs in life. I have to be ready to help others at any time I can.
Thoughts: What needs have you missed? What needs have you helped with?

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