Picture it. Carcassonne. France. 2016. My husband, my aunt and I are visiting the city. We just had an early dinner and were heading back to the hotel. Overhead, clouds of starlings fly and chirp in mesmerizing shapes. I take out my phone and stop to record them as thousands swoop and swirl above me. Nature is breathtaking. The individual starling vanishes and becomes something much larger, much greater, a massive consciousness swarming the sky. I stop recording, smiling, and round the corner to catch up to my aunt and husband. Just as I'm about to remark on the beauty of the birds, my husband shouts "they POOPED on me!!!" My aunt is already handing him some tissues. That's the end of that. lol