This morning’s walk was punctuated by crunching snow and slips and skids over icy patches. We had a whopper of a spring storm this week. Twelve inches of wet cement. Then, the temperature rose to 40 and dropped overnight leaving crusted snow and refrozen puddles on sidewalks.

It’s early spring, which also brings male northern cardinals singing their song. They sing for one reason. To get the girl. “Looook here, Loook here, here I am, hereIam.” Only the male sings such a seductive and self-aggrandizing song. There he is in a bare silver maple, plain as day, bright red and loudly calling attention to himself. The female is presumably somewhere, but more muted and color and quiet so I can’t find her. This is purposeful. As a small bird, they are easy prey for larger birds like the Cooper’s hawk I saw a few days ago on this same walk.

I take a lesson from this bird about complexity and competing interests. Natural selection tells me he reproduces as much as he can passing on traits like his coloration and singing abilities to his offspring. The longer he lives, the more the population of cardinals will look and behave like him.

As potential prey, camouflage and stealth would seem to be the advantage here for the cardinal except he has to attract the female to pass on those traits. That’s where the money is, the payoff for these hungry-hawk-attracting risky attributes. Follow the money. Always. The female doesn’t need to take these risks as she doesn’t have to attract the mate. She is part of how nature selects the traits the mean getting the payoff for the male, the sexual selection part of the complex process.

The compromise and complexity is that the male has to get noticed by the female and evade the hawk all at the same time. He’s willing to risk it for the money payout—reproduction and spreading of genes. He’s got to be bright and loud for her and fast and smart to avoid the hawk since he can’t be quiet and camouflaged as simple natural selection would seem to dictate. Complexity and compromise. Those that are both complex and can compromise live longer, mate more often and pass on those traits more so the system perpetuates. Follow the money.

These are as complex and chaotic times as I’ve experienced in society in my lifetime. We have an administration taking a sledgehammer to the government they are hired to administrate. We have a congress seemingly paralyzed, maybe out of fear or bewilderment as the norms and rules they follow, the normal rules of politics have been suspended and tossed aside. And the Supreme Court, well I don’t know what’s happening there. Maybe you like the sledgehammer approach. It’s something. It scares me. Breaking is easier than creating, but creating is, well, creative.

It seems to come down to a world that is messy, complex, and made up of intricately interconnected social and ecological systems. It also doesn’t seem to be working well, or at least well for most people, so it’s easy to desire simple solutions, to want action. Please, somebody do something.

However, a simple solution to complex problems usually results in unintended consequences and subsequent additional complex problems. Solving complex problems requires creativity.

I don’t know what will happen in the next few years, months, or even days, but I do know this. When trying to understand the complexities of politics, democracy, and capitalism, and understand the actions and motivation of those bright, loud cardinals, follow the money. Who will get the biggest payoff? That’s the side to approach with the most skepticism. Is it the research scientist making 100k or the investor with millions or billions at stake?

In the end, like the male cardinal they all want one thing. To get paid.

Don’t let them screw you to do so.