Can we Coexist Peacefully?

This morning a Cardinal enjoyed a new perch on our Channel Master 4228HD I mounted on top of our roof to better receive television signals. We are ready for digital signals with our new antenna and our digital converter. Last night, though, we lost channel 2 completely. Must have been all the rain.

Cardinals are very territorial. I wonder if this one is the bird that used to dive bomb our windows, thinking it saw another Cardinal, when we had a tree growing right outside the window.

When you think about it, most animals in the world are territorial, including humans. When I used to scuba dive, I loved to watch the tiny Damsel fish around coral heads come darting out of their cover and bite my finger as I pointed at them. This little fish was the size of a minnow and had the gumption to attack something the size of a shark.

Pretty strong stuff, that sense of territory.

I reported the other day that the NC Department of Cultural Resources decided to nix the idea of creating a heritage trail in Seagrove and surrounding communities that would have promoted the pottery industry. Too much dissension in the area, they said.

I didn't realize it then, but the original idea didn't include Lee County, Sanford in particular, until some members of that community lobbied the staff of the cultural department and got them included in the idea, this according to an article in the Sanford Herald.

There's been some ongoing efforts for several years now by some in Sanford to upgrade their status as a pottery community, and someone saw an opportunity to promote Sanford by bonding with Seagrove.

Sanford and Seagrove both have a history of pottery making. But this idea of promoting Sanford and Seagrove got off on a bad foot from the beginning.

This has to do with territory. Territory, Damsel fish and sharks. There's a natural order in the way the creatures of the world coexist. Sharks don't go around the ocean eating Damsel fish, or Cardinals for that matter.

Sanford is Sanford. Seagrove is Seagrove.

Can we please coexist peacefully?


Have you ever heard of a Remora? It's a sucker fish that coexists with the shark. Wikipedia: The relationship between remoras and their hosts is most often taken to be one of commensalism. The host they attach to for transport gains nothing significant from the relationship, but also loses little.

In order for the two fish to coexist, the shark does not attack the Remora.

If you're wondering who the shark is, you're missing the point. Remora also attach themselves to Dolphin.