Tag: nature

1.20.205 – anyone can fool

anyone can fool
too many of the people
too much of the time

The Owl Who Was God

Once upon a starless midnight there was an owl who sat on the branch of an oak tree. Two ground moles tried to slip quietly by, unnoticed. “You!” said the owl. “Who?” they quavered, in fear and astonishment, for they could not believe it was possible for anyone to see them in that thick darkness. “You two!” said the owl. The moles hurried away and told the other creatures of the field and forest that the owl was the greatest and wisest of all animals because he could see in the dark and because he could answer any question. “I’ll see about that,” said a secretary bird, and he called on the owl one night when it was again very dark. “How many claws am I holding up?” said the secretary bird, “Two,” said the owl, and that was right. “Can you give me another expression for ‘that is to say’ or ‘namely’?” asked the secretary bird. “To wit,” said the owl. “Why does a lover call on his love?” asked the secretary bird. “To woo,” said the owl.

The secretary bird hastened back to the other creatures and reported that the owl was indeed the greatest and wisest animal in the world because he could see in the dark and because he could answer any question. “Can he see in the daytime, too?” asked a red fox. “Yes,” echoed a dormouse and a French poodle. “Can he see in the daytime, too?” All the other creatures laughed loudly at this silly question, and they set upon the red fox and his friends and drove them out of the region. Then they sent a messenger to the owl and asked him to be their leader.

When the owl appeared among the animals it was high noon and the sun was shining brightly. He walked very slowly, which gave him an appearance of great dignity, and he peered about him with large, staring eyes, which gave him an air of tremendous importance. “He’s God!” screamed a Plymouth Rock hen. And the others took up the cry “He’s God!” So they followed him wherever he went and when he began to bump into things they began to bump into things, too. Finally he came to a concrete highway and he started up the middle of it and all the other creatures followed him. Presently a hawk, who was acting as outrider, observed a truck coming toward them at fifty miles an hour, and he reported to the secretary bird and the secretary bird reported to the owl. “There’s danger ahead,” said the secretary bird. “To wit?” said the owl. The secretary bird told him. “Aren’t you afraid?” he asked. “Who?” said the owl calmly, for he could not see the truck. “He’s God!” cried all the creatures again, and they were still crying “He’s God!” when the truck hit them and ran them down. Some of the animals were merely injured, but most of them, including the owl, were killed.

Moral: You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.

From Fables for Our Time by James Thurber.

Seemed appropriate for today.

12.7.2023 – piled ice, snow, every

piled ice, snow, every
thing looked raw except when
you knew what it meant

There wasn’t even a trace of green in the landscape but then it smelled like spring in the fifty-degree temperature and the sight of the mounds of snow on the north sides of houses, shacks, and log cabins, and the drifts along fence rows, and the glistening drift ice far out on Lake Michigan and the ice piled on shore on the westerly sides of the forested peninsulas out into the lake.

It was more the contrasts in the present that attracted me to this paragraph.

Its a line from the fifth Brown Dog Novella, He Dog, by Jim Harrison.

I grew up in Michigan.

I grew up in West Michigan when the Lake Michigan was a 45 minute drive away and more times than I can remember, I made the drive out to see Lake Michigan covered in ice.

Trips to the ice do stand out though.

Once when my wife, then girl friend, said to me that I was going to get her out on the ice.

Then I pointed out to her that we had been walking out on the ice for a couple hundred yards.

There was also the time I went through the ice when I was about 12.

I yelled HELP, I’M THROUGH THE ICE and my brother Jack, who had driven us out to the lake so was nominally in charge yelled IS HE KIDDING.

My brother Pete got to a place where he could see me and his eyes bugged out and he yelled NO!

My point being that when I read, “the glistening drift ice far out on Lake Michigan and the ice piled on shore on the westerly sides.”

But that isn’t exactly accurate.

I mean I wasn’t reading.

I was listening.

I was listening to the audio book as I took a lunch time walk at work.

In my head, I was along the frozen shoreline of Lake Michigan.

My feet were making their way towards the Atlantic Ocean.

Both places were about 55 degrees.

I heard “… the sight of the mounds of snow on the north sides of houses, shacks, and log cabins, and the drifts along fence rows, and the glistening drift ice far out on Lake Michigan.”
I saw the December empty streets of a summer Resort and then the glint of the sun off the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

The beach was almost empty.

I don’t know what Kings and Presidents get paid or how much money those billionaires have, but I don’t think they get to walk along an empty beach at lunch time too often.

It was quiet.

I could see forever out past Tybee Island.

I could hear the waves.

I could hear the putt putt of a shrimper going past not too far off shore.

I could hear the gulls.

It all sounded a but raw except when you knew what it meant.