Thirteen

I love Winter in the South, even though technically it is still Fall. It's 13 degrees on the back porch and the bald eagles are flying low in the gorge this morning as they head out to find dead things washed up along the lake. When cold weather sweeps the Eastern USA, the big bird population of Whites Creek gorge swells up to four or five times the Summer census as Northern birds head for Southern beaches and ice free hunting for fish, fowl, and the lakeside version of road kill.

...Nothing nobler than to witness our Nation's majestic symbol feasting on four day old fish.

I jest...As many times as I've held my morning coffee aside to watch one glide by, I love seeing the eagles. We can watch them grow up and get their adult color over the course of three years ans we've even seen one of our "yard birds" get overly friendly with a yankee visitor and leave us come spring, after twirling and play fighting and locking feet in mid air in grand entertainment for the earthbound who look up.

Winter eagles are all over East Tennessee and I see them even in downtown Knoxville. I've watched them glide over Interstate 40 and 75 while sitting in afternoon traffic, but i wonder how many people actually notice them. The $99 Nikons I keep in the console of my car have given me great pleasure while waiting in the parking lot for a shopping event to be over. I watched a broadwing hawk drop out of a tree straight down onto a snake just last week, while I was talking on the phone in a office building parking area. When I mentioned the hawk to an associate, he said something like, "I never see things like that. You are sure lucky."

I don't think luck has anything to do with it. I think I pay attention to things I care about.

If your day is all about making a deal, then you may only see things that let you gain the upper hand on your competition. If your day is all about seeing and experiencing as much of this universe as you can in the tiny amount of time you have on earth, you may see wonderous things that others miss simply by looking around, no matter where you are.

These moments are life's prizes.

They are free and good for everyone.

Peace,

Steve

*****

We should also ask why anyone who didn't raise questions about the war — or, at
any rate, anyone who acted as a cheerleader for this march of folly — should be
taken seriously when he or she talks about matters of national security?

...Paul Krugman

I am STILL not the father of Mary Cheney's baby...And neither is Ranger Poe.