(Photo: MSN.com)
In case you missed an earlier post on my fear and loathing of birds, I'll recap. My crazy grandmother insisted birds were evil. She was superstitious. For example, she believed someone close to you would die if a bird gets in your house. Hitchcock's movie "The Birds" didn't help but most of the blame falls to my grandmother.
(Toward the end of her life she actually owned a bird and would answer the door with the bird perched on her head. I have yet to reconcile this in my mind.)
Occasionally I can admire the beauty of your feathered friends from the safety of indoors but that's about it. I have had complete hysterical attacks if a bird gets close to me on a beach. Someone once asked me to go on a hike with her so we could experience bird watching. She did not know me well and I did not go.
Last week I watched in amazement as the survivors of the US Air plane that crash landed in the Hudson were rescued. It was a miracle and the pilot, Chesley Sullenberger (Sully), is truly a hero.
Of all my quirks and idiosyncrasies, fear of flying does not make the list. "Cross check and call forward" is one of my favorite phrases. I have flown in commercial planes and private planes, teeny planes and jumbo jets. I flew the day they opened the skies after 9/11. (Yes, I looked for terrorists -- as if I would know how to identify one.)
Even with the bird threat, I would get on a plane today. But I will never take a hike to watch birds.
3 comments:
I get the grandmother thing because mine used to say a similar thing, only it was a white dove that had to appear for someone to die. Yet how diminished the world would be without birdsong, and I know no better picture of peace and relaxation than to see a frigate bird floating high in the sky never having to flap his wings because he knows how to "go with the flow". Next time consider going on that hike. Julia
Damn Terrorist Birds!
Sheri, you definitely come by this honestly! I think I may have been the very first in our generation to literally be terrified of birds! They are definitely omens to me! I will scream until the Echo bounces off mountain tops when one comes near me, and especially if it make "eye contact"! Nope! do not like them at all! Not live ones, not dead ones either! Nothing with wings or feathers do I want anywhere near me. Don't know how I am going to make my way around heaven with all those wings and feathers! You laugh, but I do think about that on occasion!
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