Road kill and other temptations

On Sunday morning, the family and I were headed to my in-laws’ church to see their Easter musical (which was great, incidentally). We were actually on time, a feat we were admiring as we sped down the road on our way.

As I looked ahead from the passenger seat, I saw a turkey vulture in the opposite lane, towering over some road kill. I do not know if you have turkey vultures where you live, but trust me when I say that they did not get in line when God was giving out beauty. Turkey vultures are some of the ugliest birds I have ever seen, they are even a tad bit scary looking.

Our Sunday friend was no different. I did not get a good look at the dead carcass, so I cannot tell you what it was dining on, but I can tell you that the turkey vulture did something unexpected.

As we neared it, I kept waiting for it to become startled or frightened by our approach, but no deal. The vulture seemed to completely ignore our speeding car as we neared. In fact, it NEVER MOVED – even as we passed directly next to it about 2 feet away.

I found this very intriguing, so as I saw a car pass us in the vulture’s lane heading directly for it, I turned around to watch and told the kids to also. You know, it was the craziest thing! It still refused to move. We watched as the car slowed at first, but then came to a complete stop right in front of the bird and its feast.

We continued on our way, trying to maintain our “on time” status, so I do not know who won the face off, but I did keep on thinking about the brazenness of it all.

Then I started to think about myself and all the times I have actually seen danger coming, but have refused to move. I think that sometimes unfortunate things come out of the blue, but often we are aware that trouble is speeding toward us but we still do not flee. That dead thing in front of us seems so attractive at the time.

Brazen.