The Super Bowl has brought some real money to Tampa Bay ...
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While hiking the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront today, I happened to encounter numerous species of birds and also several sailboats and yachts which are evidently owned by billionaires.
In particular, I was drawn to a yacht which had its own helicopter. I noticed the helicopter and jet ski ... and then realized, there's a sailboat hanging off the side of the yacht, too. Not a little one, either, it is a sailboat which would look impressive alongside any of Tampa Bay's native sailboats.
In addition, there were the wonderful and always entertaining black skimmers flying around as a flock. A beautiful blue jay. Minnows. A crab.
This is the living world and it is a great deal more valuable and impressive than anything humankind has ever created. More impressive and valuable than the billionaire's yacht. More impressive and valuable than the SR-71. More impressive and valuable than the Space Shuttle.
In the end, humankind's tools and toys become so much inoperable junk. Nature's technology is self-sustaining, self-reproducing, and 100% recyclable. That's how a planet keeps itself alive for billions of years.
That's also why in the battle between humankind and Nature, Nature ultimately wins. Humankind runs out of ideas, energy, resources and time. We're living in that era right now.
David Mathews
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