Animal Adaptations

I once read an old Chinese myth about why animals have all the coolest adaptations and humans don’t. Two brother gods were creating clay figures one day to fill up the Earth one day. The first god created all the animals and endowed them with the best abilities, such as flying or swimming. The second god spent all his time creating one creature: humans. However, when he went ahead to give humans their special feature, there weren’t any good abilities left, so he gave humans smarts.

I suppose it worked, as humans are the smartest, most successful species in the world now, but sometimes I wish the second god that created people was a tad bit faster and gave us a cooler ability–like flying.

One of the many reasons I swim is that I like the sensation of feeling like I’m flying. When I was younger, I wanted to be a bird because I thought that it was the coolest animal adaptation. There’s just something about spreading your wings and taking to the skies that’s so appealing to me. Sure, we created planes to fly in, but that’s just not the real thing.

Humans can imitate nature all they want. But I would still want to be a bird. Along with the thrill of flight, there is freedom. Birds soar gracefully above the world. They escape the burdens of gravity and constraints of reality. They feel the sun on their feathers and the wind beneath their wings. When they are flying, they see the world spread out beneath them. They see the infinite possibilities of Earth—and among those possiblites, the power to poop on whoever they see fit.

Yes, you read that right. I’m not a usually mean person, but if you’re a bird and you’re soaring above the human world, you can poop on anyone you want. I mean, what are they going to do about? Track the bird down? Being able to poop on people without consequences is probably one of the greatest gifts that birds have. I mean, just imagine the infinte possiblites of who to poop on!

Anyways, only I can romantize being a bird and then talk about pooping on people. But I do think flying is one of the coolest animal adaptations there is. If there really is life after death, I think I would want to be a bird.

Good work 🙂