Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Can hamsters fly planes?

For such a beautiful and elegant bird, the swan has one of the most boring lives of any animal in the kingdom which bares that name.

We have a little pond outside the facility in which I work (although I don't know how many ponds are surrounded by concrete and have a fountain in the middle). Anyway, inhabiting this pond are two white swans that spend their days (and nights) paddling around an area the size of a public swimming pool. Their surrounding view consists of a large building, a parking garage, and four trees. From the looks of it, all they do during the day is swim around and occasionally dive into the water to see what food-like substance they can scrape from beneath.

Does this sound like a life? I would expect this kind of situation for a squirrel or a pigeon, but swans seem like they deserve better. If there were any kind of social structure set up in the animal kingdom, the swans would definitely make up the aristocracy. They should somehow demand a better life. But no, when I come in in the morning, there they are. When I leave at night, there they are... in the same location I left them. What did they do all day? Does their mental capacity allow them to keep their sanity while behaving this mundanely? It must. I don't see too many swans wildly flapping their wings and honking at passers-by before they leap to dry-land and start strangling people with their necks. That's what I'd be doing.

Good thing I sit at a desk all day, staring at a computer screen instead.

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