signs

Driving to my English Comp class this morning, suddenly a solid black cloud arose just ahead of me from the field on the left. A solid balloon of black billowed just barely in my side vision and made me shiver with the awe of it. Within seconds the solid form became small individual smidgens of black as the birds broke the cloud to build their flight formation. While  not an unusual event in this  rural area of Kansas, their number and ebony mass brought to mind the black moments of the weekend. Some would call it ominous-- a dire sign of bad things to come. Thankfully, those things did not enter my mind as I watched them. Instead to me they were the image of a collected group working together towards a goal and of how each individual bird played a role in creating this phenomena.

Returning to Hutchinson  I wondered if I would see it again. The answer was negative. No black balloon  caught my mind. However looking for it , I noticed how the birds were  perched on telephone lines that run  along  the side of the highway. The lines were full; bird after bird clung to the wires which were buffeted by strong winds.  Hitchock's film  The Birds  came to mind, but once again the negative did not claim my thoughts. Instead I found myself impressed by the tenacity of the flock. The wires were narrow and wavered to and fro in the wind but the small jet colored birds clung to the wires, beaks to the wind ,and they were staying there. We need this trait-- this ability  to face the wind which threatens us and hang on.

The world is windy with chaos and  dark with terror ,but we can be brave, We can hang on, work individually and as part of a group. We can carry our beliefs  and be true to them. We can work to erase the darkness, and calm the chaos. But we can not allow hate to dominate or the  chaos will destroy the humanity within us and even if we win the battles , we  will have lost the war.