Sarah Hepola at Salon, interviewing wonderful writer Anne Lamott about her new novel Imperfect Birds, asks why the avian title (noting also that Lamott’s classic how-to-write book is titled Bird by Bird). Lamott’s fine response (excluding, for me, the spiritual bits) is inspiring for this beginner birder:
I said in “Grace (Eventually)” that if birds were the only evidence that there is another side, or a deeper, bigger reality, birds and bird song would be enough proof for me. We are so bound, and they are so free — and yet so vulnerable. The little ones you might crush, and the big ones might peck your eyes out or dive-bomb you. They’re such alien creatures, so exquisite and yet springing from dinosaurs. And you can never look a bird in the eye — their eyes are on either side of their heads, and they’re so quizzical. They have to be — they are prey, and yet so hungry. Just like teenagers. Just like us.