The Miracle of the Blue Jay

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),

Hi! I'm Kate and I'm here to leave a quick review!!

First Impression

Well this was quite a beautiful little piece on the wonders of nature and the many marvel that it holds here. I think you do a wonderful job of capturing and presenting it to us here and with quite a unique view too.

Anyway let's get right to: Kate's Line by Line Reactions;

As I lean against the tree, the branches start to undulate with the arrival of a blue jay, its dark blue and white feathers contrasting against the budding flowers. The bird tilts its head downward, surveying the paved stone walkway that once teemed with flowers and grass, then meets my inquisitive gaze. Losing interest in the ape under the tree, it lifts its moderately plumed head, locates its next tree, and departs with a series of steady and emphatic wing flaps.

Another blue jay perches on a low branch of a nearby tree, and yet another at a higher elevation on an adjacent tree. The three emit acute croaks at slow but pronounced intervals. Their round eyes dart between the trees and the vast ocean of paved walkways that separate each tree into forlorn isolation. With a final squawk of resolution, they simultaneously uplift, gracefully streaking their white underbellies until they become specks in the distance.

As their forms vanish, I wonder how long it will be before they depart as a species. Even the most prominent organisms in the history of life come and go. Each instance of a species' birth and death burdens the fauna with the daunting task of re-achieving ecological equilibrium. For life to thrive, every member of a fauna must coordinate its life cycles in perfect periodicity and syncopation with the rest. What happens if this cycle is disturbed? How will the surrounding trees and their neighbors in the sky come to terms with their sudden void, the absence of the harmony they have taken for granted for so long?

The first great miracle of life is every species' unspoken agreement on timing. The human world, operating based on precisely defined metrics such as time, dates, and science, comprehends such periodicities as life cycles that evolved to correspond with those of others. Human methods of indicating precise times and locations enable us to track and predict the yearly whereabouts of these birds and their flight patterns. Yet how do birds, lacking our knowledge of their surrounding environment and tools for navigation, miraculously time their journeys and precisely recall their breeding grounds or temporary sanctuaries? How do members of a fauna coordinate their life cycles in perfect periodicity, as if they comprehend that one's mishap yields devastating ecological disasters? What greater miracle is there than how, despite the numerous conditions every member must adhere to for the fauna to sustain itself, life finds a way to thrive?

The second great miracle of life is its immense resilience and potential to wade through crises. The great lineage of life has suffered many devastating wounds throughout history, such as the Great Dying of the Permian when 95% of all extant species vanished. Yet, even though such lacerations and orifices warranted shifts in geological and ecological compositions, life carried on. Many species have come and gone, replacing each other over the years; the fall of Anomalocaris led to the rise of Orthoceras, and the swan song of Dimetrodon was the fanfare of Lystrosaurus. Life eventually overcomes its wounds, embracing and preserving newcomers just as it has done for predecessors, and shares its resources with equal love across all generations. Is it not a miracle that we drink the same water that once bathed Dunkleosteus and Mosasaurus, breathe the same air that once carried Archaeopteryx and Pteranodon, and tread on the same dirt that once witnessed the historic showdown of Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops?

As it does every April, the blue jay’s radiating aquamarine tail fades into the horizon. Yet how blissfully unaware the blue jay is that its routine presence is a miracle that defies all odds! How miraculous is it that Archaeopteryx, great mother of all birds, and her descendants, survived the asteroid that decimated the dinosaurs and live on to this day? How miraculous is it that [Location] bears the perfect conditions for the blue jay to return every year without maps, borders, or clocks? How miraculous is it that the colors of the great heaven and the endless ocean found their way onto and remain on the feathers of the blue jay? How many miracles had to align for the ape below to observe its mundane flight, and that despite all adversities threatening its survival, the presence of blue jays can persist?

Yet I fret whether this miracle can persist in the Anthropocene, and if cessation at our own hands is looming.

I don't think I have read an narrative essay yet on this site, so excuse any sort of bias coming in from an reader's perspective. Anyways, the title grabbed me, so I guess I'm reviewing this now.

Now I am no animal enthusiast, but the fact that you chose birds as your subject for this narrative essay compliments how you personally write as an author. Your attention to detail is amazing and yet so lyrical to an extent that I didn't see this as an essay at that point because of how narratively sound this was. I never thought about how animals like birds interact with the world as it is, and I liked the real world references which supplemented the narrative as an tangible, fascinating set of written ideas. I greatly admire your attention to those seemingly misunderstanding of logic and linear thinking which has yet to be observed closely by itself.

However, I had one constructive weak point of discussion. Now I don't know if or if not this was assigned for an academic thing, but I sort of wish you added reasoning to why these real world things matter. You do mention the water part being passed down by each generation, but I want to see the "why" and an little more of the "how" of this topic. Why did it shape the miracle that is the blue jay species alongside other birds? How did all of this come to be? Why does it matter today? You don't have to get too technical or preachy since this is an narrative and not an argumentative or persuasive essay like others in this field of knowledge, you just need to go into an little more within how this is an miracle that should be acknowledged, not forgotten.

Overall, I think this is an great article about something so intriguing in the field of miracles and science. I want you to keep going and continue to hone your craft in whatever suits your individual fancy. I hope you have an great rest of your day or night. Thank you for your bravery.

- Purple67