Pigeon in a Traffic Jam

Once I was on the Pasadena freeway heading toward Glendale. Traffic was slow, and in the middle was a pigeon just standing there, impervious, and the cars were swerving around it.

I had always thought that pigeons were just not bright but terribly persistent, which explained their roaring success at the game of life....As I looked at this pigeon, standing there slowing things down even more, I started wondering if it was a conscious choice on his part to test limits. "He knows he can get away with it," I started thinking. That pigeon had become a fixture in the traffic jam - many cars tolerantly bypassed him.

I wonder if one of the random times that that story comes up at a party over cocktail peanuts, if someone will say, "I was there! I saw that pigeon!" Those are the kind of strange commonalities that make life more livable.