Cherish This Ecstasy by David James Duncan Please read it, and pay attention to how it makes you feel. Try to avoid analyzing it the first time through. Again, just read it.
I read it twice, a couple days apart. It made me feel hopeful. I need to quote Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park "Life finds a way". The birds struck me more than the man. The Hungarian Partridges smashing into the snow. Nature is just amazing.
The first time I read the piece, I just read it and let it go. Days later, I read your post, made note of your questions, then read it again.
How did I feel? I felt warmed by the recognition that there is something 'out there' greater than ourselves and because of 'it' (whether birds, dogs, rivers, sunshine, or faith) we intuitively know on some level, that we are loved.
What did I notice? I noticed his sense of humor and I loved it. The comparison to his wife, his marriage, and his reference to his own 'sexual loitering', the passion-shattered birds. Also, the fact that he wrote the letter at all, and wanted a picture of the hat, and an understanding of the walk. After the first paragraph, I too wanted to SEE the hat!
What piqued my attention? The author's use of 'blindness' as a metaphor in the phrase 'blind trust'. It feels derogatory to blind people, implying that blindness or people who are blind are mindless, foolish, naive, stupid. I am trying to use positive language in my own writing so the 'ableism' words jump out at me.
Had I been the ornithologist who received this letter, I wouldn’t have written back either. I’d of thought, (and did when I first read this piece this morning), this poor confused man, he’s lost it entirely! What a weirdo! What kind of bestiality madness have I incited?
I laughed at first at the absurdity of this man’s stretch to compare the methods of bird mating with that of appeasing a displeased wife. In fact, as a woman who has lived through a failed marriage, I started to feel annoyed and judgmental towards him. Thinking- it’s gonna take a lot more than a fancy phallic hat and a silly walk for you to make up whatever it was that you have (or haven’t) done to get you in your current situation. What a clueless ass! (Am I projecting?) <- yes.
As I went about my morning, I then began to feel sorry for him. He seems like a man grasping at anything to try and make sense of his failed marriage. I witnessed his logic as he worked through the various stages of loss. And yeah, it’s odd that this epiphany of greater love was given to him through the idea of birds fornicating, but there’s something poetic to that as well. He’s unfolding in his musings of the birds around him the concept of (what Christians refer to) Agape love. Then I began to consider Agape, and consider, and then feel, too.
Now I’m writing this part after having re-read it slowly, feeling comfort and peace along with the author. Dostoyevsky’s quote hit me deep in my soul, and the concept of grace is now sitting front and center of my mind. Grace is an incredible concept that boggles the mind and soul, can be difficult to accept, and is the most amazing gift in all of life. It is unrelenting and humiliating. This author found agape and the grace in which it lives via birds, over and over and over again. It’s comforting to me.
I read it twice, a couple days apart. It made me feel hopeful. I need to quote Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park "Life finds a way". The birds struck me more than the man. The Hungarian Partridges smashing into the snow. Nature is just amazing.
The first time I read the piece, I just read it and let it go. Days later, I read your post, made note of your questions, then read it again.
How did I feel? I felt warmed by the recognition that there is something 'out there' greater than ourselves and because of 'it' (whether birds, dogs, rivers, sunshine, or faith) we intuitively know on some level, that we are loved.
What did I notice? I noticed his sense of humor and I loved it. The comparison to his wife, his marriage, and his reference to his own 'sexual loitering', the passion-shattered birds. Also, the fact that he wrote the letter at all, and wanted a picture of the hat, and an understanding of the walk. After the first paragraph, I too wanted to SEE the hat!
What piqued my attention? The author's use of 'blindness' as a metaphor in the phrase 'blind trust'. It feels derogatory to blind people, implying that blindness or people who are blind are mindless, foolish, naive, stupid. I am trying to use positive language in my own writing so the 'ableism' words jump out at me.
Had I been the ornithologist who received this letter, I wouldn’t have written back either. I’d of thought, (and did when I first read this piece this morning), this poor confused man, he’s lost it entirely! What a weirdo! What kind of bestiality madness have I incited?
I laughed at first at the absurdity of this man’s stretch to compare the methods of bird mating with that of appeasing a displeased wife. In fact, as a woman who has lived through a failed marriage, I started to feel annoyed and judgmental towards him. Thinking- it’s gonna take a lot more than a fancy phallic hat and a silly walk for you to make up whatever it was that you have (or haven’t) done to get you in your current situation. What a clueless ass! (Am I projecting?) <- yes.
As I went about my morning, I then began to feel sorry for him. He seems like a man grasping at anything to try and make sense of his failed marriage. I witnessed his logic as he worked through the various stages of loss. And yeah, it’s odd that this epiphany of greater love was given to him through the idea of birds fornicating, but there’s something poetic to that as well. He’s unfolding in his musings of the birds around him the concept of (what Christians refer to) Agape love. Then I began to consider Agape, and consider, and then feel, too.
Now I’m writing this part after having re-read it slowly, feeling comfort and peace along with the author. Dostoyevsky’s quote hit me deep in my soul, and the concept of grace is now sitting front and center of my mind. Grace is an incredible concept that boggles the mind and soul, can be difficult to accept, and is the most amazing gift in all of life. It is unrelenting and humiliating. This author found agape and the grace in which it lives via birds, over and over and over again. It’s comforting to me.
I’m happy I have read it.