Bye Bye Birdie
I was watching a crappy policey type movie the other day and there was an exchange of dialogue that went something like this:
Dumb cop: "My gut tells me this was just a robbery that went bad and ended up getting this guy killed."
Kiefer Sutherland: "You know why I don't go with my gut? Because once you let your gut make up your mind about something, you're only gonna see the evidence that supports your gut. This was no robbery. It was... an assassination."
(Kiefer ended up being right!)
For a long time now, I've been making the same mistake as that dumb cop. When I was little I decided that the Blue jay was my favorite bird. That decision made sense: they're pretty cool looking, they're not too small, they're cool enough that they get chosen as the mascot for sports teams, and most importantly they're easy to identify. If I had said that the house wren was my favorite bird, I would have set myself up for some embarrassment:
"Hey look, my favorite bird! The House Wren!"
"Um, that's actually the Carolina Wren. I think you'll notice the subtly different markings on its back and wings. Unless of course, you're not even that familiar with the house wren... but that's impossible, because you just told me it was your favorite bird."
"Totally."
So I think I was justified in choosing the Blue jay as my favorite bird. But since then, I've learned a thing or two about birds (although not as much as the hypothetical bird expert I was hanging out with above). And what I've learned is that the Blue jay is basically the hugest jackass of the bird kingdom. They're loud and they just fly around and harass other birds. They're like the entertainment news reporters of the animal kingdom.
And I learned these things about the Blue jay, but I ignored them, because it was my favorite bird.
But people, that was wrong. It's as wrong as trying to say that something was a botched robbery when there are apparently assassination clues all over the place.
And so maybe it's time for all of us to rethink some of our preconceptions and make sure that we're not keeping ourself blind to the information/assassination clues that are all around us.
And I'm gonna pick a new favorite bird.
Dumb cop: "My gut tells me this was just a robbery that went bad and ended up getting this guy killed."
Kiefer Sutherland: "You know why I don't go with my gut? Because once you let your gut make up your mind about something, you're only gonna see the evidence that supports your gut. This was no robbery. It was... an assassination."
(Kiefer ended up being right!)
For a long time now, I've been making the same mistake as that dumb cop. When I was little I decided that the Blue jay was my favorite bird. That decision made sense: they're pretty cool looking, they're not too small, they're cool enough that they get chosen as the mascot for sports teams, and most importantly they're easy to identify. If I had said that the house wren was my favorite bird, I would have set myself up for some embarrassment:
"Hey look, my favorite bird! The House Wren!"
"Um, that's actually the Carolina Wren. I think you'll notice the subtly different markings on its back and wings. Unless of course, you're not even that familiar with the house wren... but that's impossible, because you just told me it was your favorite bird."
"Totally."
So I think I was justified in choosing the Blue jay as my favorite bird. But since then, I've learned a thing or two about birds (although not as much as the hypothetical bird expert I was hanging out with above). And what I've learned is that the Blue jay is basically the hugest jackass of the bird kingdom. They're loud and they just fly around and harass other birds. They're like the entertainment news reporters of the animal kingdom.
And I learned these things about the Blue jay, but I ignored them, because it was my favorite bird.
But people, that was wrong. It's as wrong as trying to say that something was a botched robbery when there are apparently assassination clues all over the place.
And so maybe it's time for all of us to rethink some of our preconceptions and make sure that we're not keeping ourself blind to the information/assassination clues that are all around us.
And I'm gonna pick a new favorite bird.
posted by Bret at 4:57 PM
2 Comments:
I've been afraid of blue jays for a long time.
When I was a kid, we were visiting family friends in PA, and one man said told a story about a blue jay that attacked him in his back yard - on multiple occasions. He told us that the bird literally swooped down and pecked his head! I can still picture him running around his above-ground pool, arms flailing, scalp bleeding.
To this day, if I'm walking down the street, and I see a blue jay in a tree ahead, I'll cross to the other side.
Don't forget to check out flightless birds of the Southern Hemisphere in your search.
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