Last week I was waiting at the bus stop. A couple pigeons were pecking around. Suddenly a tortilla chip appeared out of nowhere (honestly, I'm not sure where it came from) and the birds leapt on it.
One of them managed to stake a claim, and as more and more pigeons arrived, he spent more time fending them off (and making sure that nobody snuck in and grabbed the chip while he was busy dealing with another challenger) than actually eating the chip.
At last, the others gave up. But the victorious pigeon was not having very good luck with his prize after all. He pecked at it for a while, but it seemed to be too big for him. Finally he flew off as well.
I walked over to the chip and carefully stepped on it. It broke into four pieces, and I went back and sat down again. Soon the birds returned, and now the chip fragments were manageable. They ate all of it.
I enjoyed feeling that I had helped them out, although it was kind of unsettling to realize that they were willing to eat something I had stepped on. I suppose that all pigeons really do is consume garbage and transmute it into an even less acceptable form. But still, they were happy and I was happy.
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