As I walk through the streets of our neighborhood, I am struck by a single thought. “We are all struggling and working to survive. From the tiny blade of grass to the two otters that habituate our local pond, to the ducks that come and go at their pleasure, to the residents of the houses that habituate our land. If you haven’t guessed it yet, this week’s column is about survival!

It’s a chilly day for Florida. Somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty-something degrees and the humidity don’t help nothin’. Now that may seem like springtime to those of us living in the north, but I can factually tell ya this is the kinda of chill that sets the bones to cold. But I am not writing today to give y’all a weather report. No sir, not me. Notice my cool interjection of y’all to show I am in the south after all, I am from the South Bronx, and it often shows in my accent and vocabulary.

Surviving (our topic and word of the day) is very important to our species. It is so important and vital that without it—well we just wouldn’t survive, would we? But what is this stuff called survival and why do some folks survive better than others.

All species exist to survive. It means to remain alive or in existence and to continue to function or prosper. We take it to mean to get along or remain healthy, happy, and unaffected despite any occurrence. It comes from the Latin vīvere “to live”. So, to SURVIVE, we merely need to live and live well.

I live in a rather residential neighborhood for the past five years. I cannot say I am in love with it, and this will be changing in the near future. I was never interested in being part of suburbia. In fact, I abhor it. Definitely time for a change. However, the one really nice thing about living here is the pond in the neighborhood. It is called Hibiscus Lake for some reason but it is really a pond and there is a wide variety of wildlife in this watering hole. We have about a dozen ducks, two otters, three cormorants, several turtles and numerous other birds including a Great Blue Heron.  There is a small platform in the middle of the pond where the cormorants and the turtles hang out sunning themselves. It is quite humorous to watch the birds and turtles basking in the sun together. It’s one of those warm and fuzzy things.

I love watching all this nature up-close. Sometimes, we take our dogs with us, and we have been working with them, to not get all barky barky when they spot some critters. So yes, even the dogs comply with Mother Nature.

So here you have all sorts of wildlife getting along rather harmoniously. It makes you wonder why this cannot be extended out to the entire planet and everyone work together for the greater and lesser good, don’t it? Now that would be survival!