Boot 'n Paddle - November 2, 2007

Scarefest 2007 is over and it’s time to turn our attention to a different sentiment: love. Wait. Let me first say that I think we should stop talking about emotions only when they are promoted by holidays. Let us stop feeling glee only during Christmas, pride only on Independence Day, and betrayal only on Leif Erikson day. How does glee on a day-to-day basis sound?
Don’t wait until February to enliven your hearts with the warmth and fervor of love. Love today. Love right now (Boot ‘n Paddle). Don’t let remorse seize you until you one day realize you are utterly incapable of loving anything other than your collection of porcelain butter knives. While in some respects that relationship can be rewarding (nothing beats the thrill of acquiring a new butter knife!), it just isn’t the same as loving a fellow human being. It doesn’t necessarily have to be romantic love. Just love.
I have a story for you.

There was once a hermit thrush that enjoyed his perch so much that he never left it in fear that he might not remember where it was (he had a really bad memory). As he grew old, all of his siblings left the perch for new parts of the forest where they made friends with other woodland animals.
On his perch remained the hermit thrush until one day, in the later years of his life, he realized that there was something missing. He sat on his perch thinking about it (in a very simple, bird-like way) until he heard a sound that reminded him of his younger days with his brothers and sisters. It was a “tw-tw-tweet.” The hermit thrush responded in typical bird fashion, “tweet,” to which he heard a “tweet tweet tw-tweet.”
“I remember!” thought the hermit thrush. “I remember talking with my brothers and sister like this.” A flood of memories overcame the bird as he remembered, with much fondness, his youth. “It has been so long since I spoke with another bird like this, and it feels so good!” he thought. The thrush began tweeting very excitedly and heard tweeting in response.
“A friend! A friend! I’ve made a friend,” thought the bird and he lifted off his perch and flew towards the responding tweets.
He flew to the base of a large maple where he found, not a bird, but an 11 year-old boy. The boy, who had been whistling in response to the bird, saw the thrush flying towards him and threw a pinecone at him. The bird, having realized his mistake, turned to fly back to the safety of his perch, but he couldn’t find it. He had forgotten the location of his perch as well as the sound of a real bird. He never found his perch, never loved and never had a friend for the rest of his days (which was one day. He was eaten by a mountain lion the next afternoon).

The hermit thrush lived a life of solitude until one day, as a result, he was eaten by a mountain lion. I’m not saying that if you don’t feel love, a mountain lion will eat you. But I am saying, I did some research, and they usually attack people who are alone. No friends + No love = Vicious mountain lion attack.