Eagles

Visiting the town dump is part of really getting to know a town. We had to take some stuff to the dump as part of cleaning up for the graduation. Yes, even this lovely town has its dump. It seems to be very well managed. Batteries and hazardous liquids are handled properly. Fridges are bled of their freon safely. What's left is densely composted and used to build a trash hill in a landfill.

The oddest thing is the eagles. There are lots of American bald eagles around Kodiak. A photo in the local paper that showed at least two dozen of them sitting on stacks of crab pots. Sometimes you see a half dozen or more flying near the seminary, and one Sunday as we were leaving church, I saw one perched atop the cross on Holy Resurrection Cathedral, the oldest Orthodox parish in North America.

But the biggest flock I've seen up close is at the dump. And they seem tame. Two of them sat on a fence as we drove by, not 15 feet away, and they didn't even seem to notice us, much less fly away. Further off, sitting on the growing mound of compacted waste, was a mixed flock of 40 or 50 large birds -- eagles along with what I took to be crows and ravens. They are there to scavenge bits of food in the waste, as the city garbage trucks dump their waste here as well. (Yes, Kodiak is a "city"; so too is nearby Port Lions, pop. ca. 250.)

We humans go to great lengths to prepare our food just so. In the animal world, you find an assortment of odd (to us) dietary preferences, ranging from the bottom feeders, to the chimps that imitate us in the way they consume bananas. To each, their preference is the perfect delicacy. There are species that will only eat one thing, like the giant pandas that require bamboo and never tire of it, while pigs and chickens will eat most anything. Mosquitos drink blood, cows eat grass, turtles devour jellyfish. Sharks, tigers, and eagles attack live prey, while some birds eat only seeds. The majestic eagles are not proud: they are happy to scavenge at a dump. All this confirms what we know, that God provides for each.

And while he grants us the gift of good food enjoyed in the company of friends, his saints, with their modest requirements, seem to take a lesson from the beasts: that we need not be picky or proud about what we eat.