Andre Broadnax
ENGL 202
Away From Humans I did not witness the construction of the nest which had the size of a man’s fist. It would be a great experience since my university course in animal architecture was a source of marvel at how different birds collect different materials to weave, in different fashions, out different forms of nests. I noticed it when one day, as I walked along the straight corridor towards my apartment, something softly fluttering sped across my view. It was a little bird rushing into the open air away from this corridor ten stories above the ground. I turned to where it should have come from. Hanging from a thin branch of a tall potted plant scattered with some leaves was this egg-shaped nest with a hole. Tiny twigs and some feathers were used to weave this simple but adequate home. It had probably plucked some of its feathers. That could be painful, I thought. I wondered why this bird had chosen this unattractive thin plant which belonged to a withdrawn neighbor three doors away from my apartment. More importantly, staying on a plant that was incapable of concealing it and staying at a height easily reachable by humans was unwise at all. “Did the footsteps from my hard executive shoes frighten it?” From then on, every day, I walked past the plant with the slightest sound. At night, as I came back home and passed the plant, I would, taking care not to startle the faint animal, steal a glance at the hole where his or her beak rested. My respect for animals is as natural as animals are beautiful. I cannot comprehend how any human with all its gift in reasoning could inflict pain upon or even kill other animals when it knows well that it does not like pain. An ex-colleague, Khaila, which was then a fresh Biology graduate, ate the same rice and meat everyday like a one-dimensionally programmed machine without being equipped with sophisticated taste buds to receive tastes and feel textures, not to say being installed with the brain to unify them all as an experience. Its indifference towards good or bad food mirrors its attitude towards animal rights. “Why should I care? When a cat or dog passes by, I just kick it. They should be sent to laboratories for testing,” Khaila’s one-dimensionally programmed brain sent the data to the lifeless tongue which