Murmuration of Starlings
As I searched the internet for a picture of a
murmuration of starlings (coordinated flight--scroll to the bottom to see more)
I wondered why I had not taken a picture of a group I saw a couple of mornings
ago as I sat beside an open field drinking a cup of hot mocha.
I watched, not thousands, as sometimes happens, but
hundreds of starlings swirling in the sky, weaving in and out, dancing in
harmony, and wondered how in the world they could do it. How could they fly so
fast and precisely without running into each other? They must have been wearing
little radio headsets.
They would do their dance, then drop all together into
the field and disappear into the grasses where I couldn't see them, then, as
though on cue, swoop up and dance again, only to drop again a few moments
later. I hear this is a predator escape behavior, but from my vantage point,
they seemed to be having a happy time.
Could we escape predators with such joy?
Jen Scenario wrote:
"Have you ever had an aha moment that
completely blew yer mind? "Don't worry, be happy! Yes! I can choose to
place my attention on the joyous instead of the heinous!... I'm gonna hug the
shit out of everyone I see!"
Jen, you are masterful in reminding me to live in the
now and find a happy place. Yes, I'm a spiritual being here to have a physical
experience, although perhaps that physical part tells us to do something.
Be happy and get the job done. That's the challenge.
We were born into a physical body with hands to clean
up messes and a voice to tell the young ones to be vigilant.
Many of us have felt in bondage for many years. First,
the COVID-19 lockdown separated us from our social group, which helped solidify
our belief systems without a conversation with the other side. Many of us lost
jobs, thus threatening our security; our kids weren't going to school,
graduation from high school wasn't the joyous event it was for us, and newly
birthed babies were sometimes removed from their mothers as a health precaution. And the possibility of death was staring us in the face.
It’s no wonder we went a little crazy.
Prolonged stress does that to people.
And then came the arguing, name-calling, lies, and
innuendoes that have been a normal part of the media. And we listened—after all,
our brains were already fried.
I, for one, felt beaten down. And I questioned the
teachings I have endeavored to incorporate into my being for years.
That teaching is that we are masterful creators here
to create our lives, not to be victims of circumstances.
Didn't we all come here as exuberant
little spark plugs ready for an adventure?
We know the earth will go on without us—it has done so
for 4 billion years, but the plants, animals, and people living right now are
important to me. Future generations are vital to me. Native Americans believed
in planning for seven generations ahead. I've heard that post-menopausal women,
while no longer reproducing (what dear old biologists and misogynists told us
was our purpose), now we are seeing that the older women, specifically, are
here to see that their progeny continues.
For women who think broadly, progeny
extends to all life.
Ancient mythology told us that males and females once
rolled about in ecstasy, but the controllers, seeing how powerful they were
together, split them apart. (People who are talking about soulmates are talking
about that phenomenon. They are seeking their other half.) Because we are
separated, we have had a war of the sexes ever since, making both male and female weaker and the
controllers more powerful. (Why do controllers try to keep women down?)
Richard Bach, one of my favorite authors, wrote,"
If you wonder if your mission in life is over, and you're alive, it
isn't."
I'm alive.
And I wonder where I fit into this scenario. The famed
Naturalist Jane Goodall said that we all affect the earth each day we walk on
it. With Douglas Abrams as her interviewer, Jane Goodall wrote a book titled
HOPE. In reading it, I wonder how to spread hope.
Jane Goodall calls herself a naturalist. A
naturalist, Jane says, "looks for the wonder of nature—she listens to the
voice of nature and learns from nature as she tries to understand it.
Meanwhile, scientists are more focused on facts and the desire to qualify. How
is it adaptive? How does it contribute to the survival of the species? As a
naturalist, you need empathy, intuition, and love. You've got to be prepared to
look at the murmuration* of starlings and be filled with awe at the
amazing agility of these birds. How do they fly in a flock of thousands without
touching at all?"
I do not have the notoriety of Jane Goodall nor the
interviewer's skill of Douglas Abrams. However, I am persistent in this
struggle for survival. And Goodall emphasizes that HOPE is a survival
mechanism.
HOPE has kept us alive for 300,000 years.
"HOPE," says Goodall, "is like a bright star at the end of a
dark tunnel. We should not wait for it to come to us. We have to go get
it."
It is spring, or almost so. Peaceful spring. I see
buds on the trees, and the Cameo flowering quince bush shows its coral-colored
buds; if HOPE is withering, we can water it if that's what it needs. Yet HOPE
is something that lives inside of us. It's a belief, an emotion—even animals
have hope. For example, when your dog sits expectantly for you to get the
leash, hope is paired with the belief that you will take him for a walk. The
cat hopes you will open the door to let him out. HOPE is also like our heart or
brain, organs that will die without the necessary chemicals.
HOPE needs to know we care for it. HOPE needs to know
that we will keep it alive. Nelson Mandela couldn't take any action when he was
in prison, but he kept hope in his heart. He knew he had a support system out
in the world helping him. If we have our hands tired, we need others who don't.
When we have our voices silenced, such as reprisals
for speaking out, when we have books banned, when we have the media owned and
controlled, we need the free ones to speak. We need those with a voice to rise
and proclaim loudly, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this
anymore."
Almost every citizen has good reason for suing the
highest leaders in the land for constitutional abuse, emotional abuse, possibly
voter fraud, overstepping Presidential privilege, changing laws to benefit the
leaders personally (like threatening to abolish the two-term Presidential law)
for rounding up our people who came here seeking a better life, for frightening
children that they might be separated from their parents, for voting refusal
without proof of any wrongdoing, possibly for buying an election, for
interfering with physician-patient confidentiality. I'm sure you can think of
many others.
Geesh, look at how that would help the people if they
pulled wealth from the billionaires and gave it to the people—we could pay off
our mortgages, we could afford a larger apartment, we could pay for our kids’ education,
we could care for our elders if they need special care. We could afford eggs.
Power and Money are at the bottom of the jar, like a
banana a little monkey will grab and won't let go of, even when it means he
will get caught.
We are the people. Let's get our act together.
*Murmuration: (Named because often you can hear the
murmurs of wings before you see the birds.) The magic number is seven: Each
bird keeps tabs on its seven closest neighbors and ignores all else.
Considering all these little groups of seven touch on other individuals and
groups of seven, twists and turns quickly spread. And from that, a whole murmuration
moves. From the journal PLOS Computational Biology, January 2013.
The Three Things in Control
- An
attraction zone: "You will move toward the next guy."
- A
repulsion zone: "You don't fly into his lane. Otherwise, you both
fall."
- Angular
alignment: "You need to follow your neighbor's direction."
(And these birds can process information faster than we can.)
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