Left Behind.

[byronius]

I was walking the dogs last night, very late, through neighborhoods still lit by Christmas lights, when I heard a tremendous honking. Loud enough to make me stop, and search the sky. Against the half moon, two enormous V's of geese flew overhead, constantly honking, presumably to maintain speed, course, and direction in a group. A beautiful and strange sight. They were flying west, towards the coast.

Five minutes after they had passed over, I heard a single honking. I looked up to see a lone goose following the far-gone flock. The sound of his honk was grim. He was exhausted, panicky, lonely and doomed. It sounded like crying. After he had passed over, tears came into my eyes. I thought about the strange events of life. The brilliant morning of one's youth — or not. The dangers of every quiet second of time-flow. One molecule out of place in a limbic system, or just enough time passing, or one bad choice in the face of predators, or a life of bad choices leading to years in the imprisoned closet of a single white room apartment, alone, mourning, enraged, deteriorating until Death. Death. Death of a mouse. Death of a bird. Death of a person.

I have been that goose.

[EvilAL]

1. Toke ,toke, pass

[byronius]

3. Good Idea.

[HughMoran]

4. .

:smoke:

[madeline_con]

2. Excellent. n/t

[shireen]

5. i hear you ....

i've seen similar cases while birdwatching, and it really does tug at the heart. It reminds us how quickly and suddenly things can go wrong, how one single event changes the course of a life you had planned, and you wonder sadly how things could have been different. I've been that goose too, and still am; illness has cheated me of my goals and dreams, and I'm still struggling to keep up with the pace of life.

[Occulus]

6. Hell is being that goose, several times over. n/t

[tkmorris]

7. Good post

I too have been that goose, or at least imagined that I was. You brought the feeling back most eloquently.

[undergroundpanther]

8. I am that goose

We all are. We just haven't gotten out of denial enough to realize it yet.

Our planet is dying,and so will we,we have believed in the god money so much we lost community, lost each other, lost contact with the changes and seasons..and our faith in the market and it's invisible pickpocket hand has taken our world away from us and the few now claim to own it,property and money is killing this planet slowly and we have sold it for nothing but a belief an illusion.Called market, ownership,hierarchy and authority, power-over and zero sum games.

[puebloknot]

9. From being that goose, you have learned poetry! nt

[byronius]

10. It is also possible

that the goose fell to earth, and landed in the Art Park, and was given a home by a kindly old vegan for the winter.


You know. That kind of thing. Sometimes isolation from the pack means not running over the cliff.

[puebloknot]

11. Sometimes -- often, in my experience...

...isolation from the pack is a saving grace.

Still, there is the cry when separation occurs...until we come to know we were meant to fly alone.

[OnionPatch]

12. We are all that goose

nt

[warrior1]

13. He'll catch up

I see this all the time. They all have homing instincts. He'll rest then catch up. Circle of life..

[mnhtnbb]

14. Your optimism is comforting.

[rman]

15. yes, there's plenty tragedy in life,

without people along the route shooting geese out of the sky.

[Polonius9]

16. Anthropomorphism

is so cool and trendy, too. Stoner anthropomorphism perhaps even more effective, at least in terms of Praxis.

[rman]

17. as are metaphors - nt