Hospital Experience
My wife was in the hospital for a procedure that was to be 2 days at the most. She was in for six! It was very tiring for her and me both. I was frustrated and became a bit angry. I kept the words to myself. Perhaps they could read my demeanor.
It made me believe the statement that 10 percent of a working force are responsible for 90 percent of the positive things accomplished. Many of the other 90 percent seemed inefficient – lacking common sense, not really listening to problems, and unable to do the simplest of things without direction from above.
Going on extended stay in the hospital to make one well, is like sending someone to prison to make him change his ways. He will usually come out a hardened criminal, and the patient just gets weaker until they can get back home to recover!
Western Tanagers & an “invisible” experience
I have seen western movies where an Indian felt safe, amid a battle, because he claimed to be invisible. This is a situation that I’ve often wished for and strangely enough it has seemed to have happened a few times during my pursuit of wildlife photos. There is no other way to explain it. After pursuing bird after bird, only to have them “spook” and fly away, sometimes a lucky situation will arise.
One time in late July, when camping at Lake Cleveland, we found a shallow pond at one side of the campground. It was the result of snow-melt and was receding quite rapidly each day. In a “devil-may-care” mood, I stuck a stick upright in the mud of that pond. I then proceeded to place my chair a scant 20 feet from the stick. It was as if I wasn’t there. Sixteen different species alighted, either on that stick, or at my feet, before moving in to drink. Hairy Woodpeckers, Pine Grosbeak, and others; but the most noticeable were Western Tanagers. If you would have told me that this would happen, I’d have said that you were crazy.
The tanager is one of my favorites and his red head makes for a breath-taking sight. The bird needs a good supply of carotene in its diet to enhance the red coloration. Slightly smaller than a Robin, it has a black back and tail and a bright yellow body and yellow wing bars. The female is colored like the male – minus the red head.
This bird prefers the coniferous forests of the western United States during the summer months, but winters in central Mexico and further south. In the early spring this species always pays a visit to our yard, where it is much attached to the sugar water we put out for the Orioles
Dream World
By Dave Hanks
Isak Dinesen, author of “Out of Africa”, in her short story
“Echoes from the Hills”, talks about Juma, a former house boy grown old. “An old
man by the name of Juma from time to time would come up to the old house and ask
permission to walk the grounds, to think, there, of the time that had once been,
and for an afternoon would walk on the paths beneath the tall trees and then
again would disappear. It was believed that he had come along a rough
grass-track winding into the Masai Reserve – a long way for an old man to walk
in order to meditate on the past.”
A past that had now become a part of a “Dream World”. A world where
conscience is subverted to imagination and memories. Recollections that becomes
shaded and hard to determine which was really real and which was nothing more
than perception of that time, memories that make an event or place “bigger than
life”. A thing I have learned is that one can never go back to a place from the
past and regain the splendor that one recalls that place to have had. That
particular past is like a dream, gone and hard to remember in total accuracy.
So the question arises: What is reality? Could it be just imaginings of the
mind? Is history, whether secular or biblical, real, or has fantasy played a
cruel trick upon the recorder’s psyche? Especially events of centuries ago,
have, perhaps, been embellished beyond actuality. I know how present day
occurrences are mis-reported and how legends spring forth – one who has a
personal knowledge of that event, cannot recall things happening in the way they
were reported.
We cannot own or control anything for long. We seem to be mere transients
upon this world’s stage. That which we do, when we are gone, will be just a
figment of other’s imaginations. At one time I existed. Was my life and the
lives of past family members real or just a dream long past?
I live in an old, intriguing brick house on a small farm. The yard consists
of about 4 acres. My parents, now deceased, planted the original yard and since
those days my wife and I have greatly enlarged upon the trees, lawns, and
shrubbery. It is now difficult to remember how it used to be – real, or is it
remembered with a grandeur that wasn’t true? All the work and care expended can
be erased so quickly, after some new proprietor takes hold of the reins. Because
it was my parents, I have never felt like I completely owned it. The burden of
what will become of it weighs heavily upon my conscience. It will all be a
dream, hard to recall in detail.
My college athletic past and notoriety shrunk from view so fast that it makes
me think of the song that says: “The things we did last summer, I’ll remember
all winter long”. Gone in the “twinkling of a calendar year”! Years of school
teaching and coaching are fading more slowly, but I now have a hard time
recollecting any but a few special students and athletes. I was the driving
force, so how would others, less committed, remember those days?
An obsession of my elderly years is wildlife photography. But what will all
this concerted effort come to when my time is over? The photos will have to be
exceptional if anyone, or school, would want even some of them. Their ultimate
destiny, like school notes so carefully taken, will be the fire. So one must
milk the present for what satisfaction they get because in the end it will
become a “Dream World”. Perceptions of that past world will be as varied as each
individual dreamer!
Orbits – The General Pattern of Life
Electrons have orbits.
Planets have orbits.
They make up the overall scope of existence.
As a preschooler, no orbit is there.
I am the center of the universe.
Everything revolves around me
It’s me, me, me.
But learning comes fast.
Oh, the awakening when I am thrown into orbit!
School is here. High School and then College -
To stimulate an ever expanding awareness.
My world and learning and acquaintances expand exponentially.
Growing older,
I become more aware of the real world.
Learning my life’s options greatly increase my orbit.
Career and family, if successful, induce a constant growth.
If I learn life’s major lesson -
I move from – ME and you – to YOU and I.
But as life progresses in age,
My orbit swells and then shrinks like a bubble.
Old age reverts to youth again.
My attention is dominated by the talk, talk, talk -
Of my medical infirmities.
My perspective returns to ME.
I become the center of the universe once more -
And no orbit remains.
www.davesnaturephotos,com
What Greed Gets You
Greed is an insidious thing. Never being satisfied with what you have, even though it may be much, will eventually lead to disaster. “Those who seek greener pastures on the other side of the fence, usually end up with a pile of horse manure” is an old saying with much truth to it. When is more and more and more actually enough ?
A good example is from a football game played recently. TCU was projected to win the Mountain West Conference title. They were also listed in the top 25 and projected as a possible BCS contender. They also led the highly ranked University of Texas for a good share of that game.
In their next game against the lower rated Air Force Academy, they were given stiff competition. However, they held the lead 17 to 10 with 49 seconds left in the game. They also had a first down on the Air Force 22 yard line. All they had to do was run out the clock to secure the win. But they wanted more. They tried to score a TD by throwing a pass to the end zone. It was intercepted and the Falcons got the ball on the 20 yard line. Three plays later it was 4th and one on the 29. TCU, expecting a sneak, bunched up the center of the line. But Air Force ran an option and pitched outside. The pitch recipient went the distance for the score and tied the game. In the overtime, TCU’s field goal bounced off the upright and Air Force made theirs to win the game 20 to 17.
Was that just dumb coaching on TCU’s part or the desire to win by a larger margin?
That seems to be what greed does for you. It will come back to bite you,
www.davesnaturephotos.com
Eyes of Love
Have you ever noticed a penny on the ground? Did you stop and pick it up? Many times I’ve stood by my school room and beheld a penny on the hallway floor. Students would invariably
pass over and not give it a second glance. They paid no attention to something they attached little value to. After a time, not wanting it to clutter the floor, I would rescue the coin and put it in a proper place. Where little value is ascribed, little observation occurs and poor understanding results.
When in the Registered Angus Cattle business, I cherished every cow in the herd. I could look at them lined up at the manger, from their back ends, and identify every individual and give a summation of each one’s traits. To others they all looked alike. But I had a deep love for Angus cattle and therefore noticed things easily. At a Utah State Fair, strolling
with my wife through the pavilion that housed art exhibits, we came upon a lady’s sculpture display. She had an excellent one of a bovine bull. She had titled it “Angus”. Though the
workmanship was very good, the title did not fit the subject. It was obvious that she had little real understanding of cattle. Wanting to know my thoughts, I was unable to convey to her that “feel” that was needed to have made the piece more authentic. An explanation that would be unnecessary to one absorbed with the subject matter.
My wife and I have developed an unbridled love for the natural world. Our eyes have been opened as a result and there has been a “snow-balling” effect. The more you notice, the greater the ability to notice becomes. When showing others slides of local birds and other life-forms, the comment always surfaces: “I’ve never seen any of those. Where have they been hiding?” It’s amazing – when the “covers” come off the eyes, things appear where they never were before. I’ve witnessed this marvelous event. New vistas of excitement, knowledge, and understanding results. Understanding breeds fondness. Understanding increases as fondness deepens.
Two people with an affection for each other, see things in the other person which the average observer cannot comprehend. Why is this? Because there is no one who
can view things with as acute accuracy as one who “looks through the eyes of love”!
www.davesnaturephotos
How About Some Serious Pondering
My brother Richard, in the later part of his working years, was employed by an irrigation company. His job consisted mainly of taking soil moisture samples and recommending watering
procedures to the client. In order to do this, it took a great deal of investigative searching, testing and the practical experience previously gained from operating his own farm. His Father-In-law would periodically ask his advice, only to completely disregard it in favor of that which he had heard on “the street”.
This frustrated my brother to “no end” to say the least. Yet he was quilty of the same thing regarding environmental issues that had entered the political arena – totally disregarding the findings of scientists in favor of “crack-pot” radio, television, and newspaper commentators ( the likes of Limbaugh, Bell, Maughan, to name a few ) who were pushing a political agenda.
Why do people do this? Why do they shut their ears and eyes to the obvious? I was a Biology teacher in high school and so I have witnessed this closing of the mind on a first-hand basis. This is especially true in environmental science and the theories relating to species continuation and adaptation. Parents were always interfering in the learning process. The following is a quote I have para-phrased that I believe most timely: ” People toss out science in order to assuage their insecurity in certain of their own ideologues, especially religious ones – purposely closing off any contact with biological education. Scientific illiteracy is leaving too many of us unprepared to discuss or understand the damage we are wrecking on our own habitat and even on our own existence. “
I have long been a preacher for the tremendous importance of variety. Variety seems to me to be as important an eternal principle as any other you’d care to mention, yet there is an almost insane drive by the human animal to reduce it as much as possible. Whether it is in our social drive to follow styles to be like the next guy, or the drive to make us all think and act alike in a religious context, or the replacing of naturally occurring bio-systems with
monocultures. Ethnic variety is what’s made America strong on the world stage. Likewise the elimination of variety in naturally occurring gene pools will eventually catch-up with us all. A very frustrating and frightening prospect to me!
I always cringe when others refer to me as a bird watcher. They talk as if all we do is recreate with birds. This attitude hits me as so trivial that it is irksome. While I do love birds and observe them, I love everything out there in nature. Our time is spent photographing all life-forms, birds being the most abundant and noticeable. What I really am is a naturalist and a conservationist. Hopeful what we do might have an effect in some small way on the attitudes of others. After all, I don’t think there is any concern facing the human race more serious than keeping our planet healthy. Also, to keep it viable through the preservation of all the variety possible in all the many and varied gene pools.
In this race for the dollar and the using up of everything on this earth, who will be the eventual winner?
www.davesnaturephotos.com
“Rules is for fools”
An old mountain climber (who lived in Hailey, Idaho) was being interviewed on PBS. He had surmounted most of the major peaks in the world. The girl interviewer suggested that he should write a book of rules for mountain climbing. Here was his answer: “RULES IS FOR FOOLS – each situation is different and if you can’t make a value judgment to apply to each,you’re dead!”
Upon much reflection, I think that was one of the most astute comments I’ve ever heard and the longer I live the stronger this statement comes home to me. I have often wondered why we have so many rules. I guess it is because there is an abundance of fools. Fools, by their actions, cause more rules to be laid down.
But when those with leadership responsibilities are incapable (or refuse to) of making a value judgment – they will follow “The Book” to the last word. It is then evident that we are being
controlled by fools and we are in big trouble. A good example of this is the endangered species act. The act has been very beneficial – a good thing! However, administrators of that act that won’t compromise or use good judgment in special circumstances, greatly harm the effort to protect the diversity of our planet.
Often, officials are more concerned with foolish perks than in using common sense to reach a realistic decision. Too often the drive to “save face” over-rides all other considerations – even if it results in negative or even harmful situations for others.
Christ gave us the only rules we need in the two great commandments. Some common sense, combined with someself-discipline in applying those two guidelines, would cover all the necessary bases.
www.davesnaturephotos.com
The Curse of the World
There’s a never ending struggle to control me.
My thoughts, my attitudes, my actions –
The very nature of my everyday life.
But where is freedom?
Freedom to use my brain
to decide what’s best for me.
With constant “chipping” at my psyche
with guilt that can be
as restrictive as chains.
They would produce a slave without a cell,
but within walls of control
as sturdy as concrete.
Knowing what’s best for me,
reiterated repeatedly
at brief or extended occasion.
I cannot fathom the egos
that unflinchingly declare,
and set themselves as the pattern.
Are they really so wise,
never doubting or looking inwards
to examine the rightness of their positions.
And with humility,
give breathing space to others
to live unbeleagured.
www.davesnaturephotos.com
