While sitting alone in this room, I’m observing a couple of crows making a nest. Maybe they’re planning to have babies. They’ve worked hard to create this “not-so-beautiful but tough and stable” nest on the tree in front of my window. Despite the rain, thunder, and freezing temperatures, these two didn’t stop. They put in a lot of effort to build this stable home. Right now, the female crow is sitting inside the nest, while the male is watching over her from the neighbor’s roof.
I can’t help but wonder how nature plays its games. Just a few weeks ago, these two didn’t care at all about each other’s existence. Suddenly, all they care about is this little home of theirs. This nest, their future babies—everything will eventually come to an end, and this couple of crows will likely separate and go back to ignoring each other, just like before they met. Nature has such a wise way of planning and organizing life for all animals.
Humans are animals too, and nature works the same way with us. But no, we have minds. Having a mind doesn’t change our natural tendencies, but we like to think it does. Our egos tell us we’re unique and different from other animals.
We meet people to have babies, just like crows mate because nature wants us to do so. However, we don’t like to call it simple mating or sexual desire. Instead, we decorate it with grand words: love, soulmate, together forever, and so on. We shoot pre-wedding videos, organize mega weddings, and go to great lengths to embellish our basic need for companionship. In trying to show that we’re not the same, we elevate the idea of being different—unique not only within the animal kingdom but even among other humans.
We build houses, just as crows build nests, but our homes aren’t just shelters. They’re our dream homes, our little paradises. We strive to make them look as expensive as we can afford, dedicating our entire lives and identities to a house—a lavish one, at that.
We dress up to cover and protect our bodies, just like crows have feathers. Yet we want our clothes to be unique, beautiful, and expensive, as our class is often defined by them. We eat to survive, but then we glamorize the food on our plates. We arrange it beautifully on the table and upload pictures on Instagram, showcasing our lives as rich, glamorous, and superior.
We are humans—we are unique.
