My office has windows. It's been a wonderful treat to work in a place that has windows. Jesus, how the architects have failed us by creating so many buildings without views. And we have all let them do it. We've become mole people. It is no consequence that we're comfortable destroying the planet. We never have to see it. We never really look at the damage that we're doing. Even on vacations, we're in mini-vans, hotels, RV's....always with the walls.
I've been watching the outside. I have a huge butterfly who visits my window every day. I looked it up. The wingspan is about five or six inches across. The butterfly is a Giant Swallowtail. The bright yellow, enlayed with other more subtle colors and patterns. Hard to believe it's a real living thing. Humans are certainly the more boring of all of the living creatures; although, we would like to think that we're not. We're not graceful, we're not really, really beautiful. We're certainly not peaceful. And we can't fly.
I also have been watching a young grackle bird. My office mates hate grackles, call them pests - use the words dirty and hate. I don't hate the grackles anymore than I hate most humans. I'll take a whole flock of grackles over most people. And I've said that outloud. Shocked the office mates are not. If the truth came out I think most people would take the birds over some people.
Anyway...back to the grackle. He's not very big, I'm thinking that maybe he's a teenager or young adult. It's mating season. He's been very busy. Everyday he puffs up, and shakes his feathers...he makes the call. Some times he gets another male, bigger than he is, sniffing around his tree. Usually a bit of a fight starts up. I am proud of my little grackle. He, thus far, has held his own. He doesn't back down. No bigger grackle has taken over his perch...not a one.
He's very black. He's very shiny. And he has bright eyes, which study me back. We spend a few minutes every day checking eachother out. Maybe he knows that I'm on his side, and am certainly no threat to him or his tree and rock.
The grackle has had a few women callers. But, they've never stayed. He puffs up, he dances, he chases...but, they always move on. Like I said, he's not the biggest, fanciest dancer...not yet, anyway. But, everyday, the fucking bird gets up and does it again...every single day. I admire his tenacity.
Sometimes, I see the girls that come by...so far, I haven't been that impressed. Some of them look a little windworn, or too skinny, or that don't take his puffing efforts very seriously - as though they are just toying with him...those make me the most ticked off. I find myself thinking that he didn't need the fucking bitch anyway.
Every day I watch.
Yesterday, was like any other day, my grackle puffed, and puffed, and called. A girl came by. She was about his size, a little smaller, with a golden chest, and bright eyes. My grackle puffed...he shook his black tail feathers and called on his tree branch. The girl puffed back. I didn't know that the girls could puff that much, I had not seen a display like this from any of the others. She puffed and shook and answered.
They danced a little in the tree from branch to branch. Then to the rock, then to the ground, they puffed and danced. He chased her round and round the courtyard of this office building, and I held my breath a little hoping that no one would come out of the building and disturb them. I didn't want her to fly off. Not this girl, this is the one....this is the one. As though, my grackle knew it to be so, he puffed and danced like he'd never done before. And this girl answered every time.
After what seemed like forever to me, it ended. They flew off together. I didn't see my grackle for the rest of the day. I don't think that I'll see him again. The next phase of his life has begun, and I bore witness to it. I bore witness to it from my glass caged window of an office building. I'm sure there's enough words to thank this bird for allowing me the chance to remember what it was once like to be outside.
