04 The Conversation

The Conversation..4

     Hummy flew along the eastern side of the mountains of Dominica because he could catch the updraft from the prevailing wind coming off the Atlantic Ocean. It was so easy to get caught up in the wind that he almost forgot the blink-burp jolt that was sending him back into conversation with BillyG. Hummy thought, “Was it strange to have a deep talk with a goat?” If the birds in my neighborhood find out that I am have a conversation with a goat they will laugh right off their perches. And worse yet, I have overheard humans talking about bird-brains. I don’t know what they mean and it makes me nervous.”

     As he looked down he saw BillyG just where he left him and knew without the slightest doubt that this mission was beyond comprehension but soon to be revealed.

     “Hi Billy G. Do you remember me?” As Hummy hovered  above him.

     “ Sure. What took you so long? This grass is getting so thick I can hardly see you.”

     “ I don’t know what I can do about the grass but I do want to ask a question”, Hummy tweeted.

     BillyG replied, “ Did  you tweet that?; Now that humans are tweeting I can’t tell the birds from the humans.”

     Hovering though a bit shocked, Hummy retweeted, “You are thinking about the same thing I am thinking about. Humans are off the chain; over the wall or have just lost it.”

     BillyG bleated, “You can say or tweet that again. Humans or people, whatever you may call them, are invading the sanctity of our consciousness. Is there anything left unsullied? People have been able to trust us goats for remaining stable for thousands of years and even though there are over 400,000,000 of us on this planet we don’t have a standing army, only fight over an occasional girl-goat, have not made the first bomb, and now they are going for another round of mayhem.”

     “what do you mean by another round of mayhem? ” Chirped Hummy.

     “Well”, whispered BiilyG,  “Not here in Dominica, pray tell, but in some other countries they are going into crowds and blowing themselves up and running up and down the street shooting each other with guns.”

     “ I can’t believe it!! Now I see what the book-cover I saw this morning meant.

The World in Disarray…………we as birds and animals must hold onto our consciousness especially since human consciousness appear to be in jeopardy. Thank God for the simplicity of plants and animals and pity the silly complexity of humans.” Sighed Hummy.

           “We can’t give up on them just because they are humans.” Said BillyG.

     “ Yes, I know that people are just babes-in-the-woods compared to us. We as animals have been on this planet for millions of years.  I think I know a way to help them but it will require great effort and more animals.”, replied Hummy.

      From just out of sight but not out of earshot sang Coqui the Frog, “I’m in. They (humans) really do need help.”

03 Interlude

Interlude   I

Hummy and BillyG

     

Because this story may go on for a while I should set some backdrop and ease into gentle familiarity of folks, places, and situations. We are living, by no choice of our own, in a world that is accelerating at a dizzying pace. If the medium is the message as Marshall McLuhan once described the situation; then we live in a cozy jungle at warp speed. But McLuhan was kind enough to call it a global village.  
        This fable takes place in the small and mountainous island of Dominica within the Lesser Antilles and just north of Martinique. The two main characters are a goat and a hummingbird. The Purple Throated Carib is the name of one of the island’s three species and Hummy fits this description admirably. The goat, BillyG, was the celebrant (though not eaten) of the 2012 Goat Festival in Dominica in the township of La Plain.

     In Dominica, practically everyone has a mango for lunch, drives a Toyota, rarely watches TV, is passionate about local politics, and on leaving the island usually returns. It is truly a cozy jungle and planted firmly on the eastern edge of the warm Caribbean Sea. I love this island. No matter how pretentious the brochures might be the island belongs to its own coziness.

     Hummy woke up suddenly as though the Universe blinked and burped simultaneously. But he would only gradually discover what was to come soon after. Hummy was anxious to return to his conversation with BillyG and he had a long flight ahead of him. There was something stirring inside his oversized hummingbird heart and he felt the jolt of the Universe blink-burp.

      His perch was very near Melville Hall airport in Dominica. As he was flitting by, he saw a man entering a taxi with a book under his arm. He could barely make out the title of the book but he thought it read; The World in Disarray. Was there a message in the book for him or was it just meant for humans? He would ask BillyG; for he knew that he had certainly munched on a few books in his time. He wondered if he read what he ate. Though Hummy did not actually recognize the blink-burp of the Universe, this was a very special day.

02 Invincible Incompatibility

Continuing...2

A Fable of Invincible Incompatibility

Phil Springer

          In order to bring even a modicum of concordance to the story of invincible incompatibility we may find a path by introducing a conversation between a billygoat and a hummingbird. The billygoat could represent a "position" and the hummingbird could be a "process". 

            Billygoat said to Hummingbird, "Why do you flit about so? I don't know where you are from one second to the next."

            Hummingbird replied, " Well, I get a bunch of different views of things."

            Billygoat quickly bleated, " What things, what views. Are you trying to confuse me?"

            Hummingbird flitting about and thinking, " like a powerful goat that you are, you hold your stance in the tall grass protecting your assets from being taken over. That’s a good thing, is it not?"

             Proudly, Billygoat returned, " You can see that from where you are? I wasn't sure because the grass is so tall and thick I'm just trying to hold on to what I have. When I turn my back for an instant things (grass) go missing.” 

             Hummingbird musing, “How do you sleep at night having amassed so much grass.”

            Billy goat sadly said, “I don’t really sleep. I just doze; but every once in a while I do sleep.  I could hire someone to watch through the night, but I would just wake up thinking that the watcher should have been watched as well.”

           Sympathetically but not condescendingly Hummingbird philosophized, “And I thought I had it so bad just living each day tongue-to-mouth and not having anything to munch on through the night like you. I just feel hungry but you suffer the agony of distrust and constant vigilance.”

The conversation ended for the day as the hummingbird sensing encroaching darkness and returned to his nightly perch. His pulse rate would drop from about 600 beats per minute to 40 beats per min and his body temp would drop as well so that he could pass through the night using only a small amount of energy.  But as he dozed off he thought about the billygoat and how different their respective lives were. The goat had to guard all that grass but all he had to do was slip into his nightly torpor.  The sun would warm him in the morning and he could flap his wings and return to the freedom that only a day-laborer can experience; just need to make one day at a time. But he knew that his experience with the billygoat was going to continue. He thought there must be a way for their mutual incompatibilities to find common ground.