Yesterday, Shauna and I became rapt in a YouTube video of an
eaglet being hatched. Then we watched the birth of a foal, from the moment it
was born to its first wobbly steps. It is remarkable how many wonderful things
one can see on the internet when one has all the time in the world. It sure
beats whining about who is to blame for this and that. Someone posted a list of
some of the pros of enforcing a breather on mankind’s relentless march towards dubious
progress. One of those pros was that Mother Earth has a brief opportunity to
thrive in the absence of man’s interference. As well, with the time afforded
us, we have an opportunity and perhaps more of an inclination to pay attention
to nature.
Yesterday, I was in touch with my cousin Jim from Oregon. I’ve
always called him Jim but his proper name is Harry J. Lehman III. Our mutual
grandfather was Harry Lehman, founder of The Wildroot Company in Buffalo. I’ve
been trying to email a bunch of old photo of the Lehman family to him, but the
internet is not cooperating. While Jim and I were never all that close when we
were younger, we’ve been in touch more frequently in the past two decades. His
parents and mine are gone now, and I suppose we share memories to which only we
two can relate. Jim writes great letters, painting clear and entertaining pictures
of his life in Oregon. In the era of 3-word communications and mindless twits,
I mean tweets, Jim has always taken the time to write a proper letter. I could probably
write a book about Jim Lehman, because he’s an interesting guy, but my point in
bringing him up is that he is more in touch with nature than I am. He sent me
an interesting YouTube link to a live web camera mounted near the nest of a
pair of ospreys in Independence, Oregon, and I have shared that link is on my
Facebook page. After years of hiking in the mountains around Banff, Alberta, Shauna
and I became fond of bird watching. While we are hardly experts, we have become
fascinated by their behavior. We must have watched these ospreys in their nest for
10 or 15 minutes. How ironic is it that it took the internet combined with a
pandemic to reinvigorate my appreciation of nature?
For 20 years or more, I’ve been haunted by the feeling that
we’ve taken a wrong turn in our quest for progress. Kids are growing up desensitized to violence
because they have access to violent, realistic video games. Many of us are
intoxicated by the lure of social media, and it concerns me that I and many
others are spending more and more time staring at a screen instead of a forest,
town, or city full of real life. It is no secret that much is being lost as we
overpopulate the earth. Mother Nature has become a source of our entertainment,
but is she receiving the respect she deserves? I have come to realize my part
in this collective apathy, and I touched on it in last week’s report. The earth
will be here long after we are gone. I always thought our extermination was
going to be by our own hand, but this latest wakeup call has persuaded me that
it might very well be something completely out of our control.
Because I am now confronted with the in-your-face reality of
my mortality, and do not have the usual distractions that cause me to ignore it,
I find myself more inclined to marvel at the flight of an osprey, or the birth
of an eaglet, the spectacular beauty of a sunset, the ever-changing shape of
clouds, and every blue jay, squirrel, deer, fox, moose, groundhog, porcupine, beaver,
racoon, and every other wild animal and wonder of nature that I have sometimes
taken for granted. Now isolated, I am paying more attention to my surroundings
on my walks, and at night I am watching the occasional YouTube video. I find it
ironic that, sequestered in my home, I am appreciating nature more, on my computer.
If anything good has come of this pandemic, aside from clear
skies and a chance for the earth to catch it’s breath before we continue our
relentless march to choke it again, it is that there is less white noise
distracting us. If I only had a few weeks left – and don’t get me wrong, I hope
and expect to have at least a few more decades – I want to spend more time watching
birds and less time focusing on myopic, politicians, boorish people, misbehaving celebrities,
and the all-knowing press. I don’t know how the world is going to reset from
all of this, and I’ve always been much better at pointing out what is wrong
with the world than what might fix it. That said, I have been blessed to have
settled in a place that is relatively unspoiled by man, and more than I ever
did when I was a city boy, I’m learning to respect “The Big Mommy”, as artist Mendelson Joe
refers to Mother Earth. Perhaps we could all benefit from a closer look at the natural
world around us.
After I posted the link to the osprey cam, I received a
comment from an old friend who now lives in Maryland. He remarked that he had
just been entertained by a couple of crows harassing a hawk on the street where
he lives. Maybe this birdwatching thing is catching on.
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer ©2020
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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