curlews - noun - birds
Like many of you, I belong to a book club, but one of my own invention. With the birth of COVID-19 came the rise of Zoom and the desire to use it during lockdown. Admittedly, I have never been a contemporary bibliophile to any great extent. However, I might have been in a former life as I tend to prefer classics over new releases. Upon establishing the club and enlisting former colleagues, mainly retired educators who are bookworms devouring just about anything they find, I knew I had to be open to recommending books written in this century. My recent choice was Colum McCann's wonderful Let the Great World Spin, the title of which is a reference to a line in Tennyson's elegiac narrative poem, "Locksley Hall." The one member of the group who is still teaching high school English, a woman from Liverpool originally, emailed the rest of us a copy. Naturally, I read it, extracting "curlews" from it. Why?
Spring is all about curlews, particularly robins. They seem to be ubiquitous, yet innocuous. And as adept singers themselves, they make one attentive audience. Whenever I sit down to practice my music, I open the window and allow them to gather outside to listen. Because of their polite curiosity and resulting respectful tolerance, I consider them friends.
But enough about my experiences. There are two takeaways here for you:
1. "Let the great world spin" is timeless, practical advice for anyone caught up in the present newsworthiness.
2. Curlews, and all other aspects of nature, are gifts to all. Totally free. They come with the package called Life.
It's Saturday. Forget about everything that is making you paranoid and take a "walk on the wild side" even if it is just down the street.
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