Ah, this. I always feel broken somehow because I'm not an "expert" at a thing I can talk and write about endlessly. I don't have a proper "profession" based off some deep well of knowledge on a single thing.
We have a lot of red-tailed here, but I think Cooper's are in our range. I think I saw one in the yard last year. What's an expert? You don't have a degree in it. Those have great value, but you have knowledge, which is also good.
You remind me that we started a conversation about solitude and then got off on another tangent and never quite got back around to it. I love solitude but that’s something that you can’t really get from solitude -- that feeling of building on ideas that comes from conversation.
I like what Chris said, we can be close to nature now without being lonely. Finding that balance is important for our health, when nature replenishes us and do does friendship.
I appreciate the footnote about Hank Thoreau. It seems in vogue to drag him nowadays over things he wasn't that he never really claimed to be. His version of hermitage is one I largely aspire to: a retreat on the fringe, accessible to people, open to occasional visitors, but also more solitary than not.
Ah, this. I always feel broken somehow because I'm not an "expert" at a thing I can talk and write about endlessly. I don't have a proper "profession" based off some deep well of knowledge on a single thing.
But, I do wonder if the bird you saw with a songbird in its talons was a Cooper's Hawk. They are great at flying and most of their diet is other birds. (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Coopers_Hawk/overview)
We have a lot of red-tailed here, but I think Cooper's are in our range. I think I saw one in the yard last year. What's an expert? You don't have a degree in it. Those have great value, but you have knowledge, which is also good.
You remind me that we started a conversation about solitude and then got off on another tangent and never quite got back around to it. I love solitude but that’s something that you can’t really get from solitude -- that feeling of building on ideas that comes from conversation.
I like what Chris said, we can be close to nature now without being lonely. Finding that balance is important for our health, when nature replenishes us and do does friendship.
Oh and there’s a great essay in “Whatever You Do, Don’t Run” about being a birder because you love life, not because of a list.
I read that book years ago! I recall enjoying it very much.
Well I'm that kind of birder then.😄
I appreciate the footnote about Hank Thoreau. It seems in vogue to drag him nowadays over things he wasn't that he never really claimed to be. His version of hermitage is one I largely aspire to: a retreat on the fringe, accessible to people, open to occasional visitors, but also more solitary than not.
I need to read Walden again. To read his words unfettered by misconceptions.