Congress

I was driving home from Colorado and I watched two crows fly over and ahead of me. They met in the air and exchanged positions and playfully swept past each other and behind one and other. This is not an uncommon scene. I love corvids and crows and ravens in particular and so I pay particular attention to them.

However my first thoughts in the moment were: I suppose they know the feeling of air that is interrupted by the other bird. That is as they slip behind the other bird they must feel a kind of intimacy that we don’t experience, a kind of familiarity. Perhaps living in the air the way they do with every feather tuned to the pressure and forces of the moving air they may even be able to distinguish which bird moved the air in that way. I don’t know, but corvids are very smart and to live in the air as they do must present an entirely distinct set of sensations than we could possibly comprehend.

This then led to my next thought which was ‘congress’. Now I don’t know why that particular word entered my head, it probably is not even the most appropriate word but there it was. Now of course I don’t mean a political body, nor do I mean to suggest coitus which is another definition of the word. No I meant the simpler meaning ‘to come together’ from the Latin congressus.

For that is what they did I suppose, they came together. I contemplated how this common act amongst many creatures but corvids in particular seemed so… well… complicated. We as humans do this all the time for any number of good and bad reasons.

I don’t know why but this struck me as interesting and touching that these two birds had congress. Now it could be as simple as the other meaning of congress, that is coitus, and perhaps these were a mated pair. But I have seen corvids come together in the more mundane meaning as well. And the reason may not be so important but certainly the idea of congress outside of the biological imperative of reproduction may be more significant.

In either case I have always sensed a kind of joy or fun in this congress and I thought I sensed it that day which is probably what provoked these rambling thoughts.

How wonderful I imagined that life does not bestow upon us merely the task of survival and reproduction. Life has these augmentations (a crude word perhaps) like companionship, camaraderie, joy, fun, humor, wonder, and the sublime. These superfluous emotions and activities that have no immediate utilitarian value. I suppose I was held in wonder at that brief glimpse at the life of two crows that they should be blessed with these superfluous feelings.

And I suppose if I analyze my feelings on that day when I had just finished visiting with an old and dear friend with whom I had recently reconnected. This, on a trip where I reconnected with a number of other very old friends, some for the first time in many decades. Perhaps I was reflecting on my own blessings of congress.