Is our nest be-fowled?

Scavengers? Not really! God’s favorites? Indeed!

When I cut some rind from my Parmesan cheese or a bit of fat from my prosciutto, instead of throwing those scraps into the garbage, I place them on my patio wall. Within a few hours crows invariably appear and they devour it all with quickness and dispatch. But what amazes me is that I don’t otherwise see these birds near our house. Their sense of smell must be so acute, that from as far as a mile away, they can detect that I have set another smorgasbord for them. And they are grateful, they leave "thank you" notes.

Unhappily, the word scavenger has a derogatory connotation. But think of the carrion that by now would encrust our planet if crows, vultures and other organisms that do our environmental sanitation did not exist. As God (or even Darwin) must have divined, keeping the world clean is a major priority. But would it surprise some of us to know that we and all other living creatures have countless active "scavengers" in our blood streams? They are called phagocytes. Their vital function is to clean up degenerating tissues as well as harmful and noxious debris. Toxic bacteria dread them but symbiotic ones love them.

Like some of you, I often fantasy what our world would be like if humans had never been created. Without predators, excavators, drillers and congenital despoilers, this planet could truly have been the Garden of Eden that God envisioned. No great clinical acumen is now needed to see that our local cosmos is gravely ill and we don’t have to look too far to know why.