Bird Nerds

I was sitting on the front porch this evening with my daughter and her boyfriend.

           

“There’s a downy woodpecker on the tree over there,” she said to us. “A male. See its red head?” All matter-of-fact.

A simple comment on the surface about an avian sighting, perhaps, but not to me. I was beyond thrilled. Not every twenty-one year old knows a male from a female downy, or cares, for that matter. But she did, and boy o’ boy, that means the world to me.

My husband and I not infrequently wonder what we’ve managed to pass on to our children. But in this case, it was obvious. Our love of birds. And I’d count that among one of the traits definitely worth passing on, besides a love of dancing, of course.

I then told  my daughter about the many entries on my Facebook page in the last few days either mentioning bird sightings or showing pictures of them. Several friends went off to Point Pelee this week, and I was appreciatively the recipient of wonderful photos of a rose-breasted grosbeak, kingbird. yellow warbler, Baltimore oriole and black-throated blue warbler.

“Bird nerds, that’s what you are,” my daughter said. “In a good way. I’m one too, I guess.”  She mentioned some guy she saw recently in the city with a pair of binos around his neck looking up, and actually thought it was cool someone young was interested in birds (other than her parents, I guess).

We talked about the many Facebook entries of birds, and I realized how our postings says as much about the  recipients as it does the senders. It's not just a fluke that besides bird musings, my page was plastered with political issues (with links), comments about major social issues (with links), a Save Species of the Deep message (with link), notices about flora returnees to the garden as well as announcements about upcoming events, particularly photography shows and music concerts.

No entries about extreme fighting or duck hunting,  petitions against gun registration or fundraising appeals for the Tea Party.  I liked what all my entries said about my interests. They were pretty much all there.

But today, I liked a bird entry on my Facebook page best of all. My daughter had posted it a few days ago. It was a simple message, but it made my heart skip a beat.  “Great-crested flycather!” it said.

Doing What We Do, II

 Why do we do the things we do? A youtube video I saw today has made me, once again, ask this question.

The first time I asked was in a blog I wrote not too long ago. I talked about my neighbour, Tom Butscher, who had just become the oldest person to row across the Atlantic Ocean after rowing 12 hours a day for 52 days. He completed the more than 5,000 kilometre journey from Morocco to Barbados aboard Big Blue, an ocean rowing catamaran.

Butscher, a former Canadian long-track speed skating champion and father of two who has already rowed solo across Lake Ontario, set out Jan. 11 with 15 other crew members. They rowed for two hours and rested for two hours, 24 hours a day.

Needless to say, it was an extraordinary accomplishment for Tom. I cheered him on every inch of the way. What he did was akin to climbing Everest, inventing Facebook or raising polite teenagers. Each takes Herculean focus, dedication, perseverance, commitment and remarkable drive. You have to really want to make these things happen.

My question in my previous blog was this: how do we choose what it is we do? Never in a lifetime would I want to do what Tom did. I can’t stress this enough.

In the case of Facebook, I might have liked to conceive and develop it, but clearly, don’t have one iota of whatever it takes to do so. I don’t even know what the words would be to describe ‘what it takes,’ other than a one-in-a-million weirdly-wired brain do what Mark Zuckerberg did. Nor would I imagine twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, who sued Zuckerberg for 'stealing' their idea, would know what it takes, either.

Regarding the polite teenagers, I did actually take this on. The jury’s still out on how well I did, however. Not a lot of feedback. But the will, drive, and commitment were definitely there.

For the record, I do have additional lifelong goals and commitments.

But they’re not necessarily the same as other people’s. In fact, they’re definitely not the same. 

Case in point. Looking at the youtube video today, I saw a group of people construct something absolutely extraordinary. OMG, what clever, creative, committed people they are to have done so. I don’t want to say any more about what they’ve done until you look at their creation. (I'm giving a second chance here to all of you who haven't looked at the video yet).

By the end of the video, I had two burning questions. How did they do what they did, was one of them. The second was, why did they do what they did? As you’ll see, it would take the exact same drive, commitment, perseverance and focus that it did to get Tom across the Atlantic Ocean. No, there was no danger in their pursuit, as there was in Tom’s, but as you’ll see, in addition to remarkable creativity, it took focus, focus, focus. And more focus.

I sometimes find myself so very lacking in this particular quality, I believe it’s related to how extraordinarily impressed I am with people who apply it in such constructive, one-of-a-kind ways (the pun on ‘constructive’ is intended, as I hope you’ll see from the video).

So, ladies and gentlemen, please keep on doing the things you do (as long as you’re not in the Tea Party). The world is a richer place because of it (as long as you’re not in the Tea Party). And to the clever people in the video, I can’t wait to see what it is you do next. I’m glad you do what you do.