Legal vs. Sinful?...

Why do the birds go on singing?

Why do the stars glow above?

Don't they know it's the end of the world?....

("End of the World", Skeeter Davis)

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If you look closely at the above picture, on the left side you can see the little dove sitting on her dear nest---blissfully unaware that our landlord plans to cut down her tree today, despite all my best efforts at convincing him otherwise.

God knows I tried to prevent this tragedy. Thanks to you readers, I did as you guys suggested and called the local authorities to see if I could legally prevent the removal of the tree. But I didn't have any luck.

One call was to "Beak & Wing", a non-profit bird organization based in nearby Shawnee. I spoke to a kind gentleman there---and after I explained everything, he sadly told me that, unfortunately, unless the nest had already hatched the fledglings, that it is not illegal to cut the tree down.

But he had this to say about our landlord: "Although it is not illegal, it is definitely IMMORAL to cut down that tree".

Immoral, indeed.

Yesterday afternoon I saw the two parent doves "changing shifts" for sitting on the nest, whereby one bird left the nest and the other one took over. (I know there's one egg---and the guy at "Beak & Wing" stated that there's probably a second one by now.)

As the doves switched, one dove seemed unafraid of me--- and allowed me to take a couple of the below pictures of it from a distance, for which I was grateful--- because I'm going to enlarge the pictures, print them out, and keep them as a keepsake. Isn't it a sweet-looking dove?

I asked the question to the cosmos last night --- and I'm asking again --- what kind of person would cut down a tree with a dove's nest and eggs in it? What kind?

And then Blaine worriedly announced that he thinks I'm headed into a "depression" --- and even though I protested, he adamantly insisted that he is going to take me away from the house today. He made an appointment with a car dealer to go perform a test drive of a vehicle he wants to purchase. Then he said he wants to go to "Whole Foods" and get some of their wonderful, organic food items.

Without any fight left in me, I acquiesced. And so that's the plan--- because Blaine simply wouldn't hear otherwise. I know he's upset--- because last night he kept mumbling to himself that he had sent an email to the landlord to try and convince the guy that "cutting down those trees will cause rainwater to flood the basement".

(And my mother didn't mince words when she sent me an email stating her opinion that the landlord is an "a$$hole".)

Anyway, I guess it's probably best that I'm not here when it happens since I know that I simply couldn't bear to watch that tree come down without embarassing everybody by having hysterics or something. I'm just worried that the landlord will begin the damnable task before we leave the house--- because we're not leaving till about noon or 12:30 pm.

I don't know what to do....

I don't seem to be able to come to grips with this very well...

I tell you, I just don't know what to do.

But this I know for sure--- and I don't care what the law says--- and I don't care how much my friends and relatives think I'm getting "too dramatic" about the whole thing--- but I agree with the guy at Beak & Wing--- I think it is IMMORAL--- nay, a SIN--- to cut down that tree!

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We roar all like bears,

and mourn sore like doves:

we look for judgment,

but there is none:

for salvation, but it is far off from us.

- Isaiah (ch. LIX, v. 11)

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