Sparrow-neither lovely nor terrible

Even if you don't know it, most likely you've been surrounded by house sparrows your entire life. Part of the difficulty of telling the story of house sparrows is their commonness. If at all seen, we tend to regard common species poorly. If not quite a sin, being common is, a kind of vulgarity from which we would rather look away. By definition, common species are a bother, damaging and in their numbers ugly. Even scientists tend to ignore common species, they like to study the far away and rare species. It is very difficult for us to say whether sparrows are good or bad. But it can be said that when sparrows are rare, we tend to like them, and when they are common, we tend to hate them. Our fondness is fickle and predictable and says far more about us than them. Now as I watch sparrows at my house, I try to forget for a moment whether I am supposed to like it or not. I just watch as it grabs onto an electric wire with its thin feet, making nest inside a electrical panel. On a small branch it hangs there and flutters a little to keep its balance as the wind blows...then flaps its small wings and flies. It can go anywhere from here, or at least anywhere it finds what it needs most...which appears to be human touch. They are just sparrows. They are neither lovely nor terrible, but instead just birds, searching for sustenance and finding it again and again where we live.