Good afternoon, readers. We’re getting our post out a bit late today. Thanks for your patience, and as always, for your support and engagement in lively conversation.
Here’s today’s Saturday Symposium question:
How this works: It’s very simple. We ask a multi-part question related to a topic we’ve blogged about during the past week or are considering blogging about in the near future, and you, our readers, share your responses in the comments section. Feel free to be open, reflective, and vulnerable…and to challenge us. But as always, be mindful of the comment policy that ends each of our posts. Usually, we respond fairly quickly to each comment, but in order to give you time to think, come back, add more later if you want, and discuss with other readers, we will wait until after Monday to respond to comments on Saturday Symposium questions.
This week’s Saturday Symposium question: Today is a day that is very special to us: International Vulture Awareness Day. We learned about today from our favorite vulture, Buttercup — an education bird we sponsor at the Virginia Wildlife Center. Last week, we had the privilege of meeting Buttercup at an open house. He’s a very charismatic and lovable bird. Nonetheless, meeting him reminded us of how many parts of God’s creation go unappreciated. We can especially relate to this as LGBT Christians. Next week, we’re going to write a post about our adventure visiting the wildlife center, and for today’s question we ask you: what parts of God’s creation do you think are most unappreciated? Why are they unappreciated? What can be done to encourage greater respect and care for these parts of creation? (And if you feel so inclined, you can also comment about vultures specifically 🙂 ).
We look forward to reading your responses. If you’re concerned about having your comment publicly associated with your name, please consider using the Contact Us page to submit your comment. We can post it under a pseudonym (i.e. John says, “your comment”) or summarize your comment in our own words (i.e. One person observed…). Participating in this kind of public dialogue can be risky, and we want to do what we can to protect you even if that means we preserve your anonymity. Have a wonderful weekend!
Blessings,
Sarah and Lindsey
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Why a vulture?!?! I looked at the picture of Buttercup (and while I appreciate the cute name) Buttercup…looks intense.
I’ve just never thought about vultures. ..
you two are interesting beings 🙂
Vultures are fascinating creatures that go under appreciated quite often. That’s why a vulture. 🙂
After a rain, just when the ground begins to dry out again, I always notice the worms that have had to crawl out of the dirt in order to not drown. When I see them squirming on the pavement, I try to pick them up and put them back where there is dirt. I don’t want them to get run over or to dry out, once the sun comes out.
My favourite birds are ravens and crows are a close second. As a culture these birds scare people. A group of ravens is an unkindness, and a group of crows is a murder. Just from those names, you can tell that they are not highly favoured. They are resourceful, though. Both of these groups have learned to use tools, recognize patterns, and to not eat if the other one is not being fed. They mourn the loss of one of their family members when they die, and they are always trying to learn new things. Here are a couple of links about these amazing birds.
https://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-02/no-fair-crows-say