The Ballet of the Birds

Morning Thoughts. Thoughts at Noon. Late afternoon thinking: Ballet of the Birds

Long time personal beliefs:

1. A new day is always a wonder because you never know what's going to happen when you get up of a morning.
2. Never make assumptions and judgments based on what you think is going on in my mind. More than likely, you are way off the mark.
3. Belief number two is applied to every person. There are too many worldviews in operation - different perspectives - complexity of "The Rule of Diversity."


President Bush dominated my dreams last night. He flitted in and out of several vignettes. I awakened remembering only the last one. G. W. and Laura were being introduced before walking onto an auditorium stage to make an opening statement, which would start the regional finals of a ballet competition. I was part of a group of parents with children participating in the competition.

The seating arrangement called for the contestant spectators to be separated. The director of our group asked us to sit in a single row, starting at the top of the auditorium and ending at the bottom seats closet to the stage -- forming a long single line. I couldn't find a way to be part of the determined seating map as every empty seat I found was "being saved." So, I jumped the aisle into a different seating section.

After I found a seat, I ran back up the steps to wait in the stage wings for G. W. to appear. I was curious to see what he would wear as he'd been to so many events during the day, I wondered how he would have time to change into proper dress for the ballet.

I was surprised. He walked onto the stage with Laura wearing a red and white sports shirt. He looked like he'd just come from a barbeque. On his way to the microphone, he began his famous hand wave -- one of his symbolic actions for the public and the camera. I wondered if these "G. W. friendlies" disappeared in private.

I could see the Velcro straps of a black protective flak jacket. He and Laura turned their heads to the side where I was standing and I could see checkered bandana's covering half of their faces. Only their eyes were showing. They took them off, looked at the crowd and smiled. I wondered what the joke was?

Later in the day, an email arrived from iced in Columbia, MO. One of my sister's colleagues, along with her husband had been stuck in their house over the weekend because of "two inches of ice coating everything and frigid temperatures." They were, however, thankful to have the basics of electricity and food. Bored with the enforced hibernation, they pulled up a couple of chairs in front of their kitchen windows and entertained themselves by watching the birds in their backyard. The subject of the movie in play was bird's trying to get to food.

Since their birdfeeders were all iced-up, Peggy and her husband had scattered seeds on the ice for quick and easy frozen meals. What they didn't figure on was when the birds flew in for a food-landing, they slid all over the place. Peggy said it "looked lik a birdie ski resort." My imagination pictured a bird ballet. According to Peggy, the birds soon figured out how to choreograph their timing and moves to slide gracefully in to successfully feed on the seeds.

The connectivity in a day never ceases to amaze me. It begins drawing the circle and ends with its powerful closure. Today, it was the three B's: Bush, the birds, and the ballet.