Float like a butterfly, Sting like a bee
~ Mohammad Ali
Mohammad Ali was called the world's greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. He had a huge legacy and following. He was an activist against war and refused the draft which got him pulled from boxing for four years. Seems counterintuitive that someone who fights for a living declined to go to war due to his own ethical stance on it.
He became an activist in many roles, but that phrase of his has always stood out for me as a life lesson and this week I found it especially poignant.
Yesterday I had an encounter which really did my head in.
I had found a baby dove two days ago which had fallen out of it's nest. It wasn't yet at fledgling age but was close. It was healthy apart from being covered in like a gazillion bird mites but that can be expected as it was a wild bird.
A neighbour saw it and decided to instruct me to take it to the vet which I was not going to do as it's parent was close by and would be feeding it and looking after it if nobody was around.
I left it outside and in the evening took it inside and put it in a box. It was fine through the night and in the morning I put it back outside to be fed by the parents with the view to putting it back into the nest which it had fallen out of.
This stupid woman then decided to trespass on the property, remove the bird and take it to the vet.
She didn't speak to me about it first so when I found this out, I gave her a piece of my mind in a diplomatic but strong way and told her that she had now robbed the bird of any opportunity to be reunited with its parents and that her trespassing on the property showed a lack of any neighbourly decorum or common decency.
At first when I found out, I wasn't going to say anything to her because I've noticed how much I absolutely HATE confrontation and tend to avoid it at all costs, but something inside me said I should pipe up and have my say.
I wasn't expecting the outcome to be anything other than hostile, because stuck up people like that simply don't just go "yes, what I did was wrong and I'm sorry", it's almost always the opposite and generally includes a personal attack.
Her reply was "Get over yourself. I don't have time for this".
I wasn't going to let it be because Miss hoity toity still was simply ignoring the fact that she intervened in a situation which she had no place to do so.
Well, I told her that I would get over myself when she stops being a busy body and to not set foot on the property again without the owner's consent.
Essentially that's just the problem with people like this. They feel so entitled that they are willing to break the law to get their way. She clearly feels that she was in the right even though she clearly wasn't and I've had experience raising baby birds before and that one could have continued being raised by its parents if I had got it back into the nest after being fed by the parents. She took matters into her own hands and probably has cost that bird it's wild and free life as it will now most likely end up in an aviary somewhere.
Back to the phrase though, I simply had to sting her because I can't just go through life letting people trample on me whenever they do something wrong. That would mean I'm a doormat and that I don't have the balls to stand up for myself. Nothing good would come of that though and countless people that I admire have that trait. They are like butterflies most of the time and easy to get along with, but if they need to have a fight, then they will, especially if it's because of their ethics and morals being walked over by some pretentious prick.
So it's unfortunate for the bird, but there's little I can do about that now - perhaps she'll think twice about intervening in a situation that actually has nothing to do with her. I doubt it though because she's not the type to be introspective and question whether she actually did something wrong. She's one of those that's always right and she'll push her ideals on others because she's so entitled she believes that it's ok to do so.
I'm annoyed with the situation, but at least I found the courage to say something, that's progress I suppose.
The image is mine