Like most young children, mine are fascinated with birds. The bigger the better; they love ducks, adore yet apprehend the vicious Canadian geese, and are comfortable with seagulls. After numerous attempts at correction, Julia and Tyler call them “eagles” and Ethan “giggles”. They love to chase them and watch them scatter, they enjoy translating their coos, from “mine” (thanks to Finding Nemo) to “please ask Mommy if you can stay and play”. I truly believe my children would be happier to feed a seagull than to be full themselves – as is demonstrated at most of our picnics as of late.
Personally, I think of seagulls as vultures; begging for a bite of my sandwich or anything else for that matter. We have become well-versed in the eating repertoire of seagulls – they will eat anything, from raw carrots to paper towel with peanut butter fingerprints. Having been pooped on by a seagull one too many times, I feign interest in order to give my children as unbiased a childhood as I can muster. Those dirty creatures disgust me, and have ruined at least one day of my life. Lest I digress, let me elucidate.
The year is gone from my memory, but I was old enough to be wanting to go out on New Year’s Eve. My Dad, a relentless bird lover, decided we should celebrate New Years together as a family, stuck at home, all together, with nothing to do but watch a special (to him) movie about a (drum role please…..) SEAGULL! Thus came the longest, most boring New Years of my life. With great introduction from Dad about how this movie, based on a book of course, would change our lives and help us improve in the New Year, we sat through what felt like hours of dirty birds. Jonathan Livingston Seagull squelched any inkling of bird-liking that may have survived my being pooped on experience. (Funny thing is, Greg and I were laughing over this movie last weekend at the family reunion, and Dad was shocked that I a) remembered the movie and b) was making fun of such a great movie and wonderful family time. Sorry Dad. But at least you were right about one thing, it did affect me and change my life in a memorable way!)
So now I sit and cringe while endorsing the bird-loving children I have. It’s great how free they can be. However, I think that if I really want them to learn to fly high, I will keep from ever showing them that awe-inspiring movie about a seagull who learns to fly and transcend the normalcy of a seagull’s life. I’ll have to find some other way to keep them from going out on New Years with friends I don’t approve of! For now, I’ll let them feed, chase and adore the eagles and giggles!
4 comments:
Renee- I'm so glad that you got Tyler's feet figured out & he's on the way to recovery! He's such a cutie!
And amen, sister, about seagulls. I grew up in Seattle where I swear, they originated, and got pooped on every time we did a field trip. Scoundrels!
elucidate? Thanks, Renee, for the word-of-the-day. I'm probably the only one, though, that had to look it up.
Grade 7 - I would bring a "word of the day" to school every day to share with my classmates and compile in a notebook that was to become a great work of erudition! Still love them fancy words!
Hey, now! The seagull is the state bird of Utah! What would all those Mormon settlers have done without them? They would have been eaten alive by crickets, most likely.
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