Posted: Sep 13, 07 5:45pm
Just finished a newly published birding book. Not a field guide or even a book about chasing rare species in hard-to-reach spots. This is mostly about backyard birding. But written by Sam Keen who taught philosophy and religion during his academic career.
Now retired to Sonoma, California, Keen has even more time to contemplate his local flock of Wild Turkeys. And to mull over that mysterious flock known as birders. If you relish the mystery and mysticism of birding, this is a great little book, 120 delightful small pages.
On the proponents of organized doctrinal religion: "Being focused on the transcendent God, they tend to overlook the sacred moments--the sightings and peak experiences--when a solitary self stands in awe before the miracle of existence, is astonished by the grace of soaring Red-tailed Hawks, is moved by the beauty of a trumpeting stargazer lily, or is comforted by a sonorous symphony of frogs on a summer night."
That's a healthy dose of mystical paganism.
"I tried to be a Christian but cheerfulness kept breaking through...And the Indigo Bunting? The bunting was the first of many slant revelations and incarnate metaphors that spoke to me of the primal sacredness of life. They form the basis of my creed, as expressed by D. H. Lawrence: "There is a sixth sense, the natural religious sense, the sense of wonder'."
"In our time, acid rain and deforestation are symptoms of the disease of human hubris that will be punished by plague, famine, and the extinction of many species unless we change our ways. Count on it."
On his admiration for Turkey Vultures: "They are low-class birds, sort of a flying Mafia that controls a far-flung waste-management empire."
"Bernie explained that insects, birds, mammals, and amphibians in healthy habitats occupy sonic niches that allow each creature to express its voice without competition from others."
Birding. "I sense that I am not the only one to express gratitude this way. Careful observation has convinced me that birders...are involved in something strange, archaic, clandestine--something more like a pagan religion than a hobby, more like Dionysian possession than Apollonian fascination with lists and birds counts on Christmas. I suspect the growing numbers of enthusiastic birders are converts to an ancient cult of bird worship that...never entirely disappeared from Western counterculture...Historically speaking, it is not the few who adore birds who are eccentric, but rather the many who ignore them."
SIGHTINGS. Extraordinary enconters withordinary birds.
Sam Keen.
Chronicle Books. $14.95
Goodness, think the Pope or some Bible-thumper may try to get birding outlawed
