magpies can recognize themselves in a mirror and no one can stop them

Some children have a fierce sense of right and wrong. Take the magpies. When you tell some kids what magpies do to the eggs of less flamboyant birds it’s an outrage to them! After that they will not give the magpies any rest. My son was like this. I was also like this. I remember the day my father told me life wasn’t fair and it was like I’d been tasered. (Anyway, as I said to my doctor, I wonder if those children with a deep sense of justice grow up to become criminals. Probably not.) Still, I don’t think it’s good to put too much energy into right vs. wrong. It will exhaust you. You’ll get on a train and someone’s bag will be occupying a seat that should be for a person. You’ll scowl at the bag man and wish bad things on him, even if you have a seat. Or you’ll be a cyclist who gets terribly pissed off about an ambulance parked in the bike lane. This stuff will eat you up.

In my train this morning, a woman was reading a book called Goals ("Ziele"). She was marking passages with a highlighter. Goals can be good, but it is also good not to have too many of them. And why mark up a nice book with an ugly, yellow fluorescent pen? That is wrong and should be severely punished.

Thanks to seasprayblue for letting me use her image.

I suspect my son and I will continue, justly, to give the magpies a very hard time.