Athens Review, Athens, Texas

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June 19, 2009

MAIL CALL: An ode to Canadian geese

It doesn’t have to get much hotter than the past few days before I anxiously await the first heralding of cold weather. I’m not referring to any weather reporter. At 70, I can forecast about as well as any computer.

I’m talking about the first creatures that indicate a change in the weather. I could mention any member of God’s creations, from plants to animals to birds to fish.

Specifically, I’m speaking of Canadian geese. Who doesn’t hold fond memories of the “honkers” signaling a seasonal change. Some of the toughest guys I’ve known could speak gently about the nightly passage of the big birds.

“I heard them last night. It was music to my ears.”

“They are circling, trying to find a place to rest. There must be a hundred birds in the V.”

I’m not to old to cry, and thinking about the pleasure that the big birds bring to young and old alike can bring tears to my eyes. There is truth to the old adage, “Some of the most enjoyable things in life are free.” I might add that they are often gifts directly from the heavenly Maker.

However, we just can’t seem to live with natural beauty. We have to cut down trees and plant scrubs or we have to replace birds with airplanes.

As I understand it, about 2,000 Canadian geese will be gassed to death in New York to accommodate air traffic. It is just another chapter in the long history of man’s destructive nature.

Good stewards of the land, the water, the air? Get real. Man has managed to destroy in a few thousand years what it took billions of years to develop. We just cannot accept these things that are free. We want to take God’s gifts back to the store and exchange them.

The geese have been around a lot longer than the airplanes. Do you think we could modify the planes instead of killing the geese?

Since I’m not a preacher nor a naturalist, I will defer to Henry David Thoreau who wrote, “There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

Which is the root of the problem, bird or man?

Jerry S. Phillips

Athens

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