This morning I saw a raven wrestling rather angrily with the animal-proof garbage cans in the park. The bird had clearly had experience of them when the lid was open, and it knew the lid could be opened, and it knew there was a lever, inside an unreachable part of the lid, that opened the lid. All of this was clear from its interactions with that hideous object that, really, has no right existing.

The raven emitted complex vocalizations as if in actual conversation, and appeared to be ‘yelling at the garbage can’ as if the object might in some way respond.

Of course, it didn’t.

But I did. I walked over to it and knelt down near the ground. I often carry a little food with me to share with animals. So we hung out for a while, and I gave it some food, and it yelled at me a lot.

After a time, I began to call back, attempting to emulate the tone and some of the form (and the number) of its calls. There’s a specific throo throo call that I am curious about the uses of. We started going through series of calls, and it would do the real thing, while I crudely attempted my human emulation. And it would match my numbers.

It wasn’t precisely a conversation. Which is one of the things that made the whole experience wonderful. But another is simpler:

in the winter, share food.

No one needs advanced metaphysics or exotic narratives to understand cold and hunger. Or the relationship of food to warmth and survival…

… together.