Saturday, October 17, 2020

Thank you for your service

 

 

 

 Note:

It is pure serendipity that the one photo I have of the small bird discussed in the following missive is an amusing picture. I planned on writing the following piece no matter how the picture turned out, even assuming it would be the usual awkward, slightly blurry kind of photograph that would be more common in this situation. Lo and behold when I came home and downloaded (uploaded?) my pictures, and I found a single, fairly clear, idiosyncratically framed picture of a winsome and sassy bird.

Although in retrospect, knowing the bird, it all makes perfect sense.

 

Now let us join today's blog post in progress:

 

So I looked up as they were leaving the library and they said "Thank you for your service."

"Thank you for your service." All of the sudden lately I hear this a lot.

"My pleasure." I replied. I mean, I was sitting there reading a book and getting paid. Of course it was my pleasure. 

Although I guess I was slightly risking my life to be a reading greeter in that situation.

All these years working my heart out at a library and all it has taken was a lighter workload and a pandemic to get thanked for my service.


And then there I was yesterday, with a day off from my (sort of) perilous job, walking down an alleyway near my home, ready to take pictures but not really thinking about them yet. And at that moment a bird hopped over to within half a dozen feet of me.

This doesn't normally happen. Birds are generally cautious creatures and do not, as a rule, come so close. This is part of why I love the zoom so much on my camera and wish it were even stronger. And though this wasn't a fancy bird, or brightly colored, it was a bird, still resplendent in all its feathery flyability and in its magical delicacy. So naturally I lifted my camera to take its picture, and then the bird remembered:

"Right, what was I thinking? This is too close. I am violating the stupid sacred covenant."

And then the bird flew up onto a nearby wall.

But fortunately the wall was not terribly far away from me either. Yes, it was in the "Officially safe for a wee bird" range, but on the closer side of that range.

So I took the bird's picture.

"I might be about to get some good pictures here." I thought.

At which point the bird flew away.


"Thank you for your service." I said.

 

 

For reasons beyond the ken of human psychology saying this utterly delighted me. I really enjoyed thanking the bird for its service.

 

 

I took a picture of a flower:







"Thank you for your service." I said politely to the flower.

 








I took a picture of a tree:











"Thank you for your service." I said respectfully to the tree.









I took a picture of a squirrel:













"Thank you for your service." I said delightedly to the squirrel.







Closing note:



Bird picture that was discussed in the opening note:













Thank you for your service.

 




 

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