The Who, What, Where, When, and Why.

We all ask the same question:  What are we doing here? 

Pondering the meaning of life is what makes us human.  We rationalize everything, so the very fact that we exist must mean something.  I think, therefore, I am.  We know we're here, that's easy.  But now that we've figured that out, we feel the need to understand why.  The majority of the world attributes our immaculate existence to the hand of a higher power. The rest of the world quietly believes otherwise.  The problem with the former belief is that an "afterlife" makes it easy to put the important things off another day.  The latter belief makes it easy not to care at all.  Nonetheless, we are here and we should make the most of the time we have. 

As I sit in my beige tin trailer at the edge of Chesapeake Bay, I sometimes wonder what I'm doing here.  Not on Earth, but in Virginia.  I have to remind myself that I came here to get experience banding birds and teaching people about avian migration, and conservation.  Another stepping stone.  But to what?  What am I reaching for?  Ultimately I'd like to coordinate my own conservation project somewhere in the world, and in the meantime I'm slowly accumulating the skills required to achieve this goal.  The more books and journal articles I read on the subject of conservation increases the prominence of the idea that accelerated species extinctions are inevitable in this world gone to the humans. 

So why bother trying to save a population of Pink Pigeons?  Of Maui Parrotbills?  Of assessing the invasion rate of an exotic species of beetle?  Why spend thousands of my hard-earned dollars on a flight to Australia to volunteer my time chasing birds through a forest?  For the same reason humans do anything at all. Because it makes me happy.  We're all going to die some day.  Everything dies.  But why not preserve what we can, while we can?  If I can improve my quality of life by improving the quality of life of my avian neighbours, then I'm just going to keep doing it and stop asking why I'm doing it. 

Despite the fact that my life is an exercise in futility, I'll continue to travel the world discovering new species, working with people of diverse culutral backgrounds, enjoying new food, and delaying the extinction of a population of endangered birds for one more day.  This is life.  The why is not important.  The how, the when, the where - that's what truly counts. 

"Fee" - Pink Pigeon (Columba mayeri), Mauritius