8 Comments
Jul 7Liked by Nate Marshall

And here I was traumatized when I failed to kill a fly on first go with my new electric bug zapper and then had to administer a second kill shot…! (I totally blame seeing Bambi as a child, and never being exposed to any of the realities of how food arrived to those magical places called grocery stores.)

Expand full comment
author

Sounds like we were raised in a similar environments: sheltered 😂

Expand full comment
Jul 11Liked by Nate Marshall

Ha! What a trip. And thank you so much for the kind words re D&B. And for sharing your own Death & Birds anecdote. Debut…a brutal end for you, friend. I tend to think of coming into existence, for any being, as winning the comic lottery, as existence in comparison to non-existence seems so obviously miraculous and wonderful. And yet, I am reminded of the many billions of animals and human animals alike for whom existence has been largely, sometimes entirely, unkind. I’ve long stopped trying to make ‘sense’ of this as, lacking divine intellect, it’s just not for me to understand.

The birds of prey at the rescue centre eat baby mice and chicks as they’re growing up. The corvids, too. So my day will sometimes see me go from hunched over miniature baby garden birds, feeding and cleaning them meticulously, humming them little songs, lovingly, to dashing into a different room where I will take scissors and disembowel and dismember the cold, dead bodies of baby chickens, one after the other. I hum these guys little songs, too, because they’re equally deserving. But all the while the thought that “this doesn’t make any sense” circles. I wish I had a way to wrap this up. I’ve got nothing.

Happy Birthday, dear Nathaniel. And hope you & the family are having a lovely vacation.

Expand full comment

Oh man.... This reminds me of the time a disabled, old, dead flat broke friend called me because her dog was dying. I went to her house and she handed me a .38, pointed to the dog lying in the back yard and said, "I don't have the heart to do it....please...." And I did.... It didn't go well. Apparently all the ways to shoot a dog in the movies don't really work in real life. Sigh.

Expand full comment
author

You and I need a podcast. You’ll tell stories magnificent and melancholy and at the end of each I’ll say, “Well shit, Steve.” Because that seems to be my reaction to every one you tell 😂

Man, I am so sorry you went through that. And the poor mutt too.

Expand full comment

HAHA! So what you're saying is my anti-depressants aren't working.... LOL!

Expand full comment
author

Not necessarily! I know for a fact I’ve said it to a couple of your good pieces recently, too 😂

Expand full comment

🫣

Expand full comment