Credos

If I have a central credo in life, it is that I try always not to be a bother to anyone, while hoping that no one will bother me.

I think that there can be no principle higher than the one involved there.   Not even helping others can be as lofty, because, after all, how often can one be certain of knowing that he is actually helping?    Quite often there's a chance that the help might turn out instead to be damaging in some way.

The benefits of that help could be beyond all doubt.   But even in that case,  there's the especially strong chance that the recipient, out of the many kinds of pride, could still see things in an entirely different way and be not at all grateful.  He or she might resent the mere act of helping someone, or they could resent being seen as needing help,  or they could be suspicious of the motives, or they could regard the helper as being merely a fool, to be avoided, ignored, or to be noted for later use as just another easy mark.

There are basically two kinds of people in the world.   There are the people who try to make their way through life as entirely on their own as  they can manage, with the only exceptions, if any, where they would gladly go for help being institutions, especially those that furnish education and medical care..   These people would be the Anti-Socials.   Then there are the Socials, who lean toward expecting and getting help every step of the way from any source at hand.

The Anti-Socials are in the minority by far.   But that must be why you have society.

In the tame world of the Virginia countyside, the various wild animals give a clear picture of  all this.

First you have the Anti-Socials, who have long ago been rewarded for their qualities by being airborne under their own power, such as the hawks and the eagles, who are able to make it almost entirely on their own, except when it comes to stuff like mating and being reared.

In contrast you have the ants and the bees, where everybody depends on everyone else all the time and there's no individuality, but there are certainly lots more of them, by far and then some.

Midway between those must be the crows, who seem to live in groups, judging by all the distant, concerted noise they make and the groups that you see, but also they do a lot of solo prospecting.

There's one that I've found walking around in my garden by the creekside nearly every evening lately.  One solitary and almost fearless bird.   I think it's the same one every day, but how would I know?

I call him Charley Crow.

He seems to know who he is.

All this must mean that essentially I'm a crow, too, but a quiet one, as Charley also is, when he's on his own..