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Fri, Feb 20, 2026

2:56am EST

Members: 491

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Carrion Luggage

by Robert Waltz

Rated: 18+ · Book · Opinion · #2336646

Items to fit into your overhead compartment

Carrion Luggage

Native to the Americas, the turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) travels widely in search of sustenance. While usually foraging alone, it relies on other individuals of its species for companionship and mutual protection. Sometimes misunderstood, sometimes feared, sometimes shunned, it nevertheless performs an important role in the ecosystem.

This scavenger bird is a marvel of efficiency. Rather than expend energy flapping its wings, it instead locates uplifting columns of air, and spirals within them in order to glide to greater heights. This behavior has been mistaken for opportunism, interpreted as if it is circling doomed terrestrial animals destined to be its next meal. In truth, the vulture takes advantage of these thermals to gain the altitude needed glide longer distances, flying not out of necessity, but for the joy of it.

It also avoids the exertion necessary to capture live prey, preferring instead to feast upon that which is already dead. In this behavior, it resembles many humans.

It is not what most of us would consider to be a pretty bird. While its habits are often off-putting, or even disgusting, to members of more fastidious species, the turkey vulture helps to keep the environment from being clogged with detritus. Hence its Latin binomial, which translates to English as "golden purifier."

I rarely know where the winds will take me next, or what I might find there. The journey is the destination.

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Elisa, Stik of Clubs

about 7 hours ago
In response to "Friend Zone"

I guess, for me anyway, I just feel like holding a grudge hurts you more than it does the other person

While this might be my experience with romantic relationships (I don't know for sure since I lost contact with all my exes decades ago), I suspect this plays out far differently in friendships. I'll put it this way. People having grudges against me has bitten me in the ass when mutual friends don't bother to hear me out and side with the other friend. So the grudges not only form but end up with some reinforcements. I think I know one of the reasons why at my age I'd be happier with more boyfriends than more friends. At least with the boyfriends the relationship dynamics are a bit clearer.

1 Like

Brandiwyn🎶 v.2026

about 15 hours ago
In response to "Friend Zone"

For someone who shouldn't be talking about human interrelations, this was an excellent breakdown of the levels of friendship: "just being cordial with the ex, or occasionally doing stuff together in a group, or somone you can call to help you move, or a full-on "help you move bodies" close friendship."

2 Like

Lazy Writer est 4/24/2008

about 15 hours ago
In response to "Friend Zone"

I have been married for 55 years come March so I don't have a lot of experience with exes except my husbands ex and she was a problem throughout until her death and her legacy lives on. I think if you can have a good relationship with an ex that it a good thing.

2 Like

Soldier_Mike

a day ago
In response to "Plant to Fail"

Re your plastic plants comment, my mom didn't need plastic plants in order to have plants inside and outside her house; she was good at live plants. She had plastic ones in planters hanging from her back deck's railing, just so she could water them year-round - brushing off the snow first during the winter, of course - and the neighbors would have something to scratch their heads about.

2 Like

Annette

a day ago
In response to "Plant to Fail"

I didn't want indoor plants in our last apartment because there was carpet everywhere. Now I don't want indoor plants because I don't want to risk my cats eating the plants and getting sick.

My garden is doing well though. If you count an assortment of invasive and native weeds thriving, it's thriving.

2 Like

Brandiwyn🎶 v.2026

a day ago
In response to "Plant to Fail"

The cats don't flee because you are their minion. If they left, whom would they have to boss around?

Fellow houseplant killer, here.

I wouldn't call it murder, exactly, but it's more involuntary manslaughter than negligent manslaughter. Yep. I'm an over-waterer.

Dear FBI:

This is why I Googled "different classifications of murder".

3 Like

TJ says, "keep on keeping on!"

Feb 17, 2026 at 9:05pm
In response to "A Fair Shakespeare"

You know what they say, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Bill Shakespear.

Robert Waltz

Feb 17, 2026 at 8:24pm
In response to "A Fair Shakespeare"

Brandiwyn🎶 v.2026

- you're right, and I should have looked it up instead of guessing. I thought I had memories of hearing it at home, before I went to college, but no, it was after college. Memories are weird.

1 Like

Brandiwyn🎶 v.2026

Feb 17, 2026 at 7:40pm
In response to "A Fair Shakespeare"

PS. And you should feel extra old. 1987 was exactly 20 years before the iPhone was first released.

1 Like

Brandiwyn🎶 v.2026

Feb 17, 2026 at 7:37pm
In response to "A Fair Shakespeare"

Dude. No. You're off by a whopping FOUR YEARS.

(There's a big difference between 3rd grade and 7th grade when it comes to musical impressionability!)

1 Like

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Printed from https://shop.writing.com/main/profile/blog/cathartes02/day/8-22-2024