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Usually when going to Central Park, I am in my own zone.
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Headphones and music playing through my ears; a single purpose of finding and chilling out with the water birds (or carriage horses) of the park.
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While often noting others' guilty of small infractions, such as runners or cyclists on wrong side of the roads, people walking on ice-covered lakes or the occasional smoker, I never say anything. "Live and let live," is my motto. -- "As long as you don't infringe on my rights to enjoy the park, I don't infringe on yours." Life in NYC is stressful enough without going purposely out to look for it.
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But, others are not always so obliging.
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Yesterday, while tossing some cracked corn and black-oiled sunflower seeds to very hungry mallards on the partially ice-covered Reservoir, I felt a tap on my shoulder.
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I turned to face a 40-something-year-old woman and what I guessed to be her son about 12-years-old.
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"Isn't that illegal for you to be doing that?" the woman admonished in rude and superior tone.
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Feeling swift anger suddenly rise to my head, I shot back.
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"Am I bothering you? Are these ducks bothering you?"
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"You're NOT supposed to be...."
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But, before she could finish her sentence, "Why don't you get the HELL out of my face? Have you any idea how many thousands of these ducks STARVED to death last winter -- including many in Central Park?"
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Startled by my less than timid outburst, the woman moved away with her son.
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Yes, I'm sure she thought me some kind of duck hugger nut job, but I didn't care. I just wanted her gone. I can't stand so-called and in their own minds, "do gooders" like this. -- Especially those who begrudge the birds a few, small treats in winter.
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While most people go to the park to simply enjoy it, there are some who apparently assign themselves the duties of political correctness enforcers and look to admonish anyone bending the rules, no matter how slight. (Probably one reason I dislike so much, the anti-carriage horse people who spend so much of their time harassing carriage drivers and tourists taking rides. Some people apparently can't stand to see others enjoying peaceful and wholesome activity.)
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The woman and kid finally gone, I returned to tossing some seeds on the ice. By that time, a few Canada geese had curiously and leisurely shown up, but the mallards were so desperate and quick that the corn and sunflower seeds were fast gone seemingly before hitting the ice. (I am guessing that because they are smaller than geese, ducks probably have faster metabolisms and require more food in winter. But, that is just a guess, based on mere observance -- and of course, the waterfowl starvation tolls of last winter which were much harder on ducks than geese.)
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I then thought about the woman again and the "lesson" she was teaching her son. That of all the things to be concerned about in NYC, a senior citizen feeding ducks in the park was something to begrudge and confront.
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At that rate, the boy will be dead by the age of 30 just from the pressure, stress and anxiety of it all. -- PCA
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