Bird Droppings September 23, 2025
I was listening to the stillness of the morning and the sunrise, and sometimes, we need a window rather than a mirror.

I was driving alone this morning, as I do often, trying to get a few photos of the sunrise. Today, it was a beautiful day. The ambient temperature is almost warm enough for tree frogs and peepers to be calling. There may have been some morning sounds down in the bottoms along the stream or towards the field. The air was not moving, save for a single car leaving our subdivision early this morning as I drove out this morning. I was thinking as I drove, meditating, letting my mind float, listening to the stillness and haunting music of Carlos Nakai. When I came home yesterday and walked around the back yard, the dry weather kept any new flowers from poking up. However, I saw a red-tailed hawk as I drove to Publix. Maybe that is a good sign. My rosemary hopefully will survive. I need to transplant it to a new bed; our blackberries are taking over. Hopefully, it will be just a few weeks from now that our azaleas will start blooming, and color will surround our home.

“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf and take an insect view of its plain.” Henry David Thoreau

Sometimes, we do not look and listen carefully enough and miss pieces of what is so close. Last year, there was a baby anole, which most people call a chameleon, which is a little green or brown lizard we find on shrubs and around our house. It was on our porch about two inches long; it nearly escaped observation. His father greets visitors as they come onto our porch. At about six inches long, he usually sits on the doorpost in the late afternoon sun, weather permitting. But I mentioned listening today. I was sitting and talking with a student a few years back, before the break, listening and arguing, till something hit me. My student saw a different world than I did, and their beliefs and understandings were different. I explained from my own perspective, and he tried to assimilate into another world. A comment was made, and my student’s response was not that of a teenager but of a small child, which is so difficult to explain. A comment was made, and as I listened, a light bulb went off. I was using terminology and understanding that was in a different galaxy compared to what he had experienced in life. This was not about intelligence and our ability, but beliefs, culture, experiences, understandings, and perceptions.

“If all I was seeing were a sunrise, I would have missed the intricacies of the clouds.” Frank Bird, grandfather, teacher, photographer, and ponderer

In working with modern-day high school students, the conversation often consists of daily one-upmanship and listening to the constant chatter about who has what phone, purse, or shoes. I finished testing before our pep rally, and a group of students in my room asked Mr. Bird, Do you have Facebook? I responded, of course.  One of the students, a cocky young fellow, was commenting about all his pictures and how he had probably more than anybody on Facebook. I quickly one-upped and said I would say I have more albums than you do pictures. His response was, “You do not have more pictures of yourself than I; I have 982. As I thought about one-upping again, I said no, you do beat me in that I have pictures of other people, not me. He went on to show how he was a model, the clothes he wore, and a hairstylist, and he failed the test not because of class work but because of humanity.

So, I thought about our self-focused young man and how that is impacting the reality we have. My wife and I went out for lunch a few days back using a gift card given to us by our son and daughter-in-law. While we talked, I shared my little photo discussion and how it made me think. My wife mentioned a news story from the day of a teenage girl who somehow took a selfie with a dead body. Our conversation drifted to teaching and classes we both teach in college, and a comment about class size and state funding. I went to school all through school with thirty or more classes. That is not a good thing, but we made it. I was thinking of a student teacher at our high school talking with his instructor in the staff copy room when I walked in, and I overheard pieces of the conversation. It hit me how many educators of educators have been in a sterile environment in academia, and today’s classroom is radically different than even five years ago. When I first started teaching nearly seventeen years ago, I did not have an iPhone or laptop to contend with; I was using notebooks and hard copy books.

“If a man walks in the woods for the love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.” Henry David Thoreau

“Conversation was never begun at once, nor in a hurried manner. No one was quick with a question, no matter how important, and no one was pressed for an answer. A pause giving time for thought was the truly courteous way of beginning and conducting a conversation.” Chief Luther Standing Bear

I began to listen to the stillness when no talking was occurring; I just observed my student thinking about a word I may have said: imagination. What if we have a limit to our imagination? What if you were much like a tape recorder and could only imagine what you had taken in? Most of us do this anyhow, with a bit of whimsy, we can alter and add to and delete from and create anew. So, this is a big what-if; you could not add to and delete from, only use what you had on tape. I recall reading a book, Thinking in Pictures, by Dr. Temple Grandin, which best describes what I am saying. Dr. Grandin is autistic. It has been nearly fifteen years since I read about a young man, Jason McElway, who is autistic and was the star of his high school’s last home basketball game. At that time, he was approached by numerous Hollywood production companies, including Walt Disney, to make a movie about his life. As I thought more, listening to stillness this morning, we all have autistic tendencies.

“I photographed a massive oak tree, easily seven feet in diameter, that once stood by a house, as a chimney is just behind it. In my readings, the Tree of Life has much significance to Native peoples. This came to mind as I photographed this great tree. As I thought, it came to me that even this great tree was only a few minutes from someone’s saw, cut, and lying on the ground.  Frank Bird, grandfather, teacher, and ponderer

“The world is but a canvas to our imagination.” Henry David Thoreau

What if, rather than 1 in 31 children having symptoms of autism, only those who have more severe autistic symptoms were recognized, as it was when I started teaching in 1970? Technically, the American Psychological Association, in its latest manual, is changing the definition again, and what if they went back to the older view, and our frequency of autism drops drastically back to 1 out of 1000 children? That is even easier than blaming Tylenol.  I think we all have the same tendencies. This is a difficult explanation. As I sat listening today, it was so quiet that I was able to think, imagine, and dream. When I sat down today, I started on this topic, and in the back of my mind, I recalled a creativity test. I recalled reading about how Temple Grandin had to teach herself how to respond to emotional stimuli. As I read my morning messages and blogs on Facebook and WordPress, it hit. The tendencies are universal and vary significantly.

I was trying to explain from my worldview an idea that was so alien to the student I was talking with on Friday. I was painting oils with a student who was used to crayons and pencils. It was nearly twenty years ago that a little girl on American Idol, and yes, I do get caught up in the frenzy still, or I should say we do here at our house, each picking favorites. This little country girl was as cute as a button and was explaining being in LA, going out to eat, and having squid or calamari. As she tried, she was making cute faces and such. But having never had squid before, there was no basis for her even to consider it. But if she had been from Italy, Mexico, or Asia, where squid is prepared as a standard fare, it would be different. To those folk, boiled okra would have been just as gross. Boiled okra is far worse than squid.

“It was necessary to live through, and establish, a presence of stable consciousness within the world before it was possible for the detachment to gradually emerge which would permit that other, objective reality to connect with the conscious.” Dr. Karl Gustav Jung

What if someone has to experience an event to understand it? What if the limitations of those individuals limit imagination and the ability to assimilate intangibles? I can explain an idea so clearly to me that anyone could understand it, yet a person who needs experience needs to tape-record that idea, and they would not have the data to deal with it. What if belief is this way as well, faith or trust, for example? The great educational philosopher John Dewey addresses

experience and the ability to build from experiences past and present in his writings quite often.

“John Dewey’s significance… lies in several areas. First, his belief that education must engage with and enlarge experience has continued to be a significant strand in informal education practice. Second, and linked to this, Dewey’s exploration of thinking and reflection.” The Encyclopedia of Informal Education

Enlarging experience is not all that easy. What if a person is limited to their experiences only? What if they cannot enlarge that realm and are stuck within the confines of a limited reality? I am getting deeper than normal, but it revolves around my discussion with that student the other day. Hearing myself listening to the words and explanations I was trying to do, and then hearing a response that was limited and being limited by certain parameters, was also confined. This is a significant piece we, as teachers, need to consider. I will expound another time. The morning is closing in on me, and I still have my daily sojourn to Kroger to go. Please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts, and always give thanks, namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

docbird