It is with profound sorrow that I write about another senseless termination of an unborn life.

The wanton and needless destruction of this life potential makes me question the very nature of life in this universe.

Why does this happen?

The poor lifestyle choice of one, or perhaps both, parents causes a living potential to be destroyed.

What could they have accomplished had they been given the opportunity to live?

What joy might have they brought to others given the opportunity to behold them, to watch them grow, to see them reach their full potential?

What might they have done if poor choices hadn’t dictated a premature termination of it’s life?

They will never open their eyes.

Never inhale the first breath.

Never take in the wonder of this world

Never feel the warmth of the sun.

Never feel a cooling breeze.

Never meet others like them.

Never grow to make their own choices.

Never know if their choices would lead to a continuity of life, or a senseless termination.

All choices have consequences.

We have come to be a world where consequences are explained away, minimized, perhaps even ignored.

Make the choice, cause a foreseeable result, and just move on. Free to make the same poor choices again, perhaps with different consequences, or worse, and no expectation to learn from the actions we set in motion.

But I write because I was fortunate enough know one being, or more correctly one potential being, that will forever be denied the opportunity to make a choice.

I had the opportunity to try and minimize the damage of the parent’s poor decision.

I made an effort to undo nature’s course, and I did not succeed.

So it is with profound regret that I write about the premature passing of the unknown species of bird that I tried to hatch.

I came upon the egg as the nest fell from one of our jetways at the Southwest Florida International Airport, Fort Myers.

The local birds sometimes make the poor choice of building nests in areas that at first appear a perfect choice.

Covered.

High off the ground.

Devoid of common predators

Near abundant food and water.

And, unfortunately, moveable.

More often then not we find the eggs broken.

But this was different, I was right there as the nest, mostly intact, slid through as the jetway moved and the egg came to rest.

It was still warm.

With the nest destroyed, there was nowhere to return the egg. Not to mention that birds are not exactly welcome at airports. Just ask Captain Sullenberger and the passengers of the USAir plane that became a boat on the Hudson.

So I thought I’d take a chance with an artificial nest (a box of Kleenex) and a warm light.

With the amount of information instantly available online you’d think instructions on raising an unidentified, but hardly unusual, egg would be included.

It is not.

So I decided to wing it. (Pun intended)

Based on the information on indigenous birds of Southwest Florida I narrowed the species down and set up the makeshift incubator.

The dogs were fascinated.

They had never seen me take so long to make them eggs for their meal.

I did my best to maintain a consistent temperature.

We monitored the egg looking for any signs of development.

We tried, we really did.

Well, the dogs more for selfish culinary purposes than any noble preservation of life. They had never heard of 10 day scrambled egg but they were willing to try it.

I should have known not to try and change evolution.

Evolution is successful precisely because it weeds out, albeit over an extended period of time, bad parenting lineage.

Build your nest in a moveable jetway, the eggs get crushed, and the gene lineage for poor nesting location selection is slowly, inexorably, weeded out.

I gave my egg-encased bird a name, Charles. It was a demonstration of my overall optimistic outlook on life.

I believed he might make it.

Unfortunately, it is my duty to announce the passing of
Charles “Chuck” the (Species Unknown) Bird, 2-?-2013 to 2-28-2013.

A life denied, a potential unrealized.

The dogs were heartbroken.

They love scrambled eggs.