Zhuang Zhou was wandering in the park at Diaoling
when he saw a peculiar kind of magpie
that came flying along from the south.
It had a wingspread of seven feet,
and its eyes were a good inch in diameter.

It brushed against Zhuang Zhou’s forehead
and then settled down in a grove of chestnut trees.
“What kind of bird is that!”
exclaimed Zhuang Zhou.
“Its wings are enormous,
but they get it nowhere;
its eyes are huge,
but it can’t even see where it’s going!”

Then he hitched up his robe, strode forward,
cocked his crossbow, and prepared to take aim.

As he did
so, he spied a cicada
that had found a lovely spot of shade
and had forgotten all about
[the possibility of danger to] its body.

Behind it, a praying mantis,
stretching forth its claws,
prepared to snatch the cicada,
and it, too, had forgotten
about its own form as it eyed its prize.

The peculiar magpie was close behind,
ready to make off with the praying mantis,
forgetting its own true self
as it fixed its eyes on the prospect of gain.

Zhuang Zhou, shuddering at the sight,
said, “Ah!—things do nothing
but make trouble for one another
—one creature calling down disaster on another!”

He threw down his crossbow,
turned about, and hurried from the park,
but the park keeper [taking him for a poacher]
raced after him with shouts of accusation.

—Zhuangzi by Zhunag Zhou, trans by Burton Watson

The story could be a dream-scene.  The story teller is a hunter observing the arrival of a large-sized magpie that despite its wing span is hardly able to fly, and even with large eyes fails to detect the presence of the hunter.  Then the story teller-hunter notices a cicada resting in a shady spot, oblivious to a shadowing praying mantis.  The praying mantis anticipates a meal, fails to notice the approach of the hungry magpie.  Recognizing the inevitable, — a result of distraction, a consequence of overweening self-indulgence the story teller-hunter throws down his crossbow, shaken at the prospect of the domino-effect of catastrophe.

The story does not end there.  Enter the game-warden!

But wait, a greater end is still to come.

Almost eight billion of us, forgetting ourselves, attending to our prospects for gain, we accelerate the melt of polar ice caps, cause unstable weather patterns, drought, mega storms, and large scale migration.

*Australian magpie photo by Roman Joost