Another nest in the bush outside my front door, and an egg shell near my back door. No matter what people say I am sure there is more nature in my garden than before lockdown.
My mind started to wander. I started to think about the Cuckoo – a brood parasite. That means the Cuckoo lays eggs in the nest of another bird. Who teaches it to do that? If a Cuckoo is brought up by the other bird species then why how does it find out that it should lay eggs in another birds nest?
In fact who teaches a bird how to build a nest?
Nature is amazing, and there are so many complex tasks that come natural to animals without any teaching. How do salmon know they should go home to lay eggs?
Makes you wonder about the whole nature/nurture argument. Just how much choice do we have? Even if we have a natural drive to live one way I like to think that we can choose to do different. Otherwise there would be no benefit in releasing criminals from prison – it would be once a criminal always a criminal.
But there is another side to that. It does mean that what we “feel” to be right may actually be the wrong way to live. I wonder what are the things in my life where I need to live in a way that is contrary to what comes natural. What are the standards, the values, that you use to measure your life against?