This past Saturday night, to celebrate the ending of one of my GRE tests, Brian and I went out to eat and In n Out burger. We had a great time, as always we enjoy this restaurant a lot.
There was an older deaf couple that was eating nearby us, and when they got up to leave the husband gave me a little message on a small sheet of paper. The message read "God Bless You :)". I guess Brian and I must have looked confused about what we would have done to deserve such a compliment, because he and his wife were both pressing their hands together and bowing towards us, in an effort to explain. They were both Caucasian, so I know that they were not doing some kind of greeting that is normally seen in Asian cultures... finally the man turned over the paper he had given me and wrote: "Pray before eating." They had seen me say a quick blessing over our meal before we started eating.
What a blessing! I really had needed encouragement that night, because I don't know if I did all that well on my test, and boy was I so blessed to have been able to receive that small token of love from the man. He is my brother in Christ! And how amazing that it just took one small act that seems so elementary and rooted into me, praying before I eat, to give someone the opportunity to converse with me about my faith.
I felt extremely happy leaving the restaurant. This is why I love In N Out, and maybe even LA so much; there is such a diversity of people here and BOOM: before you know it, you are pushed together into community with people that you never would have interacted with on your own. And there you are, sharing your lives with one another like you had never expected to.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Classical Conditioning at its Finest
Apparently, the city of Los Angeles, California has a pigeon problem. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure this out! The most disturbing part about the pigeon problem is that there is actually a woman living in the Hollywood Hills who, for some reason or another, goes out every morning to feed the pigeons all over Los Angeles. She has no furniture in her living room, just bag after bag of pigeon feed, and she faithfully feeds the enlarging pigeon community all over Los Angeles. I even think I saw her on my street one morning with crusts of bread (*and of course I got out my angry eyes, why would I want someone to feed the pigeons on my street?!).
To combat the growing pigeon population, the city of Los Angeles has come up with an amazing, but age-old, solution: put distributing sites around the county on rooftops that don't get very much traffic, where pigeons can go to get their food. And when the food is being distributed, some kind of light signal/sound signal will go off to let the pigeons know that the food is being distributed on their rooftops. Sound like Ivan Pavlov, doesn't it?
Can anyone else see a possible issue with this? I can. The woman is still going out to feed the pigeons. I'm talking about every single morning. People have actually tried to catch her and she somehow manages to evade them. And this will be her routine for the rest of her life. She loves these birds! So while the pigeons might learn to go to the distributing sites because they will learn to pair the noise/light signal with their food, they also will still be getting their food from her. This is a huge issue. Instead of getting rid of the pigeon population, we will be exacerbating it!
A possible solution (if anyone else wants to chime in with another solution be my guest...): at the distributing sites, make sure the pigeons eat the feed and deliver a small shock to them at the end so that they learn not to eat the food? This is very difficult, though for severals reasons. 1. several animal rights activists frequent this lovely city I find myself in and 2. the pigeons could just learn not to come to the distributing sites and still they would be fed by the pigeon lady. So really, I don't know if there is a sensible solution. But the next time you are in Los Angeles, and you see a pigeon, just think of me and smile.
To combat the growing pigeon population, the city of Los Angeles has come up with an amazing, but age-old, solution: put distributing sites around the county on rooftops that don't get very much traffic, where pigeons can go to get their food. And when the food is being distributed, some kind of light signal/sound signal will go off to let the pigeons know that the food is being distributed on their rooftops. Sound like Ivan Pavlov, doesn't it?
Can anyone else see a possible issue with this? I can. The woman is still going out to feed the pigeons. I'm talking about every single morning. People have actually tried to catch her and she somehow manages to evade them. And this will be her routine for the rest of her life. She loves these birds! So while the pigeons might learn to go to the distributing sites because they will learn to pair the noise/light signal with their food, they also will still be getting their food from her. This is a huge issue. Instead of getting rid of the pigeon population, we will be exacerbating it!
A possible solution (if anyone else wants to chime in with another solution be my guest...): at the distributing sites, make sure the pigeons eat the feed and deliver a small shock to them at the end so that they learn not to eat the food? This is very difficult, though for severals reasons. 1. several animal rights activists frequent this lovely city I find myself in and 2. the pigeons could just learn not to come to the distributing sites and still they would be fed by the pigeon lady. So really, I don't know if there is a sensible solution. But the next time you are in Los Angeles, and you see a pigeon, just think of me and smile.
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