Today I awoke to the gruesome discovery of a dead Pekin. Last night some critter sneaked into the coop and killed my duck. It looked like there was a struggle, as there was blood all over the coop. I am not sure what the culprit was, but ultimately I am at fault. Every night I would close the door, but somewhere along the line I got complacent and left the door open. There are many reasons for complacency, but none of them are good. Shutting the door is a simple matter, which only requires one to pull a string–it was designed to be easy. Even so, I got complacent. This specific issue will not be of great interest to most people, but it applies to many other areas of life: exercise, work, study, etc. How do you guard yourself against complacency when things are going, or seem to be going so well? How do you convince others to maintain vigilance? Must one always get burned before deciding to become vigilant again? A dead duck is easier to recover from than other things.
Complacency
7 Comments to “Complacency”
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A bobcat? Coyote? Raccoon? Strange that he didn’t eat his prey or drag it into the woods. Stranger still is that he made his kill silently without alerting the other inhabitants. Check for tracks on the way in, fur on the outer perimeter line, follow the blood trail. He might have left something in that straw.
I’m interested. I too am a hunter. Often it takes a screwup to learn. I nag others to be vigilant because I have made the mistake myself. Often they do not listen until it is too late.
The enemy is always out there. The stronger he is, the weaker the mistake that he can take advantage of. He always grows fat on what one leaves behind.
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Nietzsche talks of the “great contempt” in thus spake zarathustra, that is my guard against complacency. getting burned is an important part, it is something our society has insulated many against, but it is a very fragile insulation, one easily broken apart both accidentally (katrina) and for other reasons (9/11). what really matters your sleep and rest, does it forge new walls and bullets to do battle with the day? it is poverty, filth and wretched contentment! perhaps you should stay up one night in a haypile and lie in wait like some pale clammy neolithic predator, for whatever dares to pirate your chattel.
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“Strange that he didn’t eat his prey or drag it into the woods.”
I thought so too, which seems to suggest a feral cat. The other critters escaped unharmed.
“perhaps you should stay up one night in a haypile and lie in wait like some pale clammy neolithic predator, for whatever dares to pirate your chattel.”
I’m thinking about it. Obviously the door will be shut either way. Often my brother and I have stayed up late shooting at the racoons who took up residence near the coop. Some of the incidents remind me of war movies. One raccoon was reaching for his brother, trying to pull him to the top of the water tower as my brother shot at him with a pellet gun. The noises they make when they are shot in the eye are unearthly.
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You shot the raccoons, when they may prevent feral cats. Same with foxes. You’ll waste resources, killing everything.
Survival farming of the truest order would mean you ate the Raccoons because you need the meat. Trading 16 lbs. of coon meat for one duck is not a good trade-off when you add in the lost sleep.
I’ve eaten all kinds of critters. Dogs really never look at you the same way again, nor they, to you.
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Are you going to use the carcass for meat? Even if you don’t eat it, you could leave it for the dogs.
I wouldn’t like the idea of sitting in the dark, waiting for them to come; I need to sleep. Maybe walk around during the day and find the perp then? Motion lights?
Maybe you could leave out a cheap can of tuna as a sacrifice. That’s much cheaper than the cost of raising a new goose.
These are good stories. As a farmer one is a bit of everything; now a police officer securing a homicide scene.
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I notice this with people I like too. Within twenty-four hours of me thinking things are going really well, they aren’t. Usually its after I’ve vocalized this to another person.
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Our own psyches guard against complacency. Traumatic experiences continue to replay in our heads over and over for a reason. Perhaps this is why OCD evolved in humans.
