Bird Brained

It has been a nice Sunday evening. I was invited to have dinner with my friends Laura and Annie. Not only did we have a fun time nattering about general world concerns, the girls also gave me carte blanche to use their computer to try and sort some of my email. (Apologies everyone, but I do have an honest excuse!)

A long time ago I knighted Annie with the affectionate moniker of ‘Annie Angst.’ She has a tendency to worry herself into apoplectic fits over the most mundane and superfluous things. She’s a lovely lady, but she’s prone to worrying about almost anything, whether it has anything to do with her or not!

Tonight, after hearing of my trials and tribulations with the demise of my faithful yet ancient laptop, Annie began worrying about all that could happen to her should her laptop be stolen or meet a similar death.

With each scenario she imagined, she became more and more animated, almost to the point of becoming distraught. Across the dining table, Laura and I stared at one another in amused disbelief as Annie went on and on until Laura interrupted the dramatic display by singing ‘One, two three, here we go, Bedlam, Bedlam, Ho Ho Ho!

Now Annie appeared hurt. She had a childlike pout as if we had been making fun of her. Ok, we had. We apologised to Annie and I told her she was being a bit over the top over such a silly thing. Laura, in a manner that one might apologise to a petulant child, added ‘besides, Annie, Bill doesn’t have the sense God gave a goose for not backing up all his files every single day!’

Ouch! Yep, I deserved that; there was certainly credence in what Laura said, but it still stung a little. We finished dinner with a wonderful crème brûlée Laura made for us and thankfully, Annie didn’t end up being forced into a straight jacket.

The three of us worked together doing the washing up. I scrubbed the pots and washed the dishes, Annie did the drying, and Laura put them away, all the while encouraging us to keep up the pace and get the job done.

But for the past couple of hours, I’ve thought about what Laura said - ‘the sense God gave a goose.’ And I realise that there are some basic truths to this for all of us:

In spring, geese head north, flying in a V formation. As each bird flaps its wings, it reduces wind resistance and cuts an easier path for the bird immediately following; allowing the flock to cover a greater distance than if each bird flew on its own.

BASIC TRUTH # 1

People who share a common direction and sense of community get where they are going quicker and easier because they travel on the thrust of one another. When a goose moves out of formation, it quickly feels the difficulty of trying to go it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the power of the bird immediately in front.

BASIC TRUTH # 2

If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation with those who are headed the same way. When the lead goose gets tired, it drops back in formation, and another goose moves to the head point.

BASIC TRUTH # 3

It pays to take turns doing hard jobs. The following geese honk animatedly as an encouragement for the others to keep up their speed.

BASIC TRUTH # 4

We all need support and encouragement from others to help us keep going.


Thank you for a lovely dinner...

And Thank you for the compliment!

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