Complex Numbers

In Praise of the Vulture

Tell us the story of your name. How and why was it chosen? You can choose to talk about your real name, your WDC username, or even your handle if you like!

I don't know if I've ever explained my username.

As I mentioned a couple entries ago, I'm not going to divulge my legal name here. Suffice it to say that my parents bestowed it upon me.

Nor am I ready to reveal how I chose my pen name.

But I will talk about my login.

It's really quite simple: I admire turkey vultures. You could say they're my spirit animal.

Oh, sure, they're ugly as fuck, and no one wants to be around them. Right there would be enough for me to identify with them. But there's more.

Vultures serve an important purpose in the ecosystem. They remove that which would otherwise contaminate the land - the organic detritus of what was once living. By doing so, they actually clean up the place. Hence their species name - cathartes aura - or "golden purifier." Few appreciate what they do, or even understand how essential it is, but they do it anyway. Yes, they devour the dead - as do we all.

More, they seem to fly just for the hell of it. Because they can. They're awkward getting started, but once they're aloft, they appear to fly just for the pleasure of flying. In doing so, though, they expend the least possible amount of energy for the greatest reward. There's a common misconception, perpetuated by decades of shoddy screenwriting, that vultures circle over that which is about to die. Well, if they're gyrating over a soon-to-be-corpse, it's by coincidence - what they're doing is taking advantage of updrafts, the rising of heated air. They'll seek out these updrafts and use them to gain altitude so they don't have to flap their wide wings. In fact, they try not to flap at all, preferring to glide.

Their propensity to expend minimal effort for maximum gain is another reason I identify with them. Don't flap your wings; find an updraft. Leave the whole "chasing prey" thing to more ambitious carnivores; be satisfied with what's left over. Likewise, why take on the risk of injury, chasing prey that might have defenses or competing with others who have sharp claws, teeth, or beaks, when your whole evolution has enabled you to avoid those hazards?

That which is ugly can, sometimes, become beautiful when you look at it the right way.

Every once in a while, I feel like I should change my username. I've never liked having the "02" tacked on; that was an artifact of having trouble creating an account here, back in the noughties. But you might say I'm too lazy to bother. I'm fine just gliding along, for now.