the winged, the enlightened, and the dead

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the author's reflections on the approaching bird season, the concept of death, and the beauty and fragility of life.

🙋 Q&A

[01] The Approaching Bird Season

1. What is the author's perspective on the approaching baby bird season?

• The author finds it comforting to consider the huge amount of effort that the birth of these tiny creatures will inspire, as it feels proportionate to their importance.
• The author describes the particular kind of intensity that the time of year when tending to those made fragile by their proximity to either one of life's bookends holds.

2. How does the author describe the experience of tending to life beginning and life ending?

• When tending to those made fragile by their proximity to either one of life's bookends, one must disarmour themselves in order to fully meet the being to whom they tend.
• When one hand is tending to life beginning and the other to life ending, one's arms are stretched so widely open that the heart is entirely exposed—a most vulnerable and liberating state.

[02] Swifts and the Concept of Death

1. What does the author find comforting about the way Swifts bathe themselves?

• The author finds the fact that Swifts bathe themselves by flying slowly through falling rain, thousands of feet in the air, brings them the most exquisite sense of peace.

2. How does the author hope that death feels like?

• The author hopes that whatever part of us which is eternal experiences a sense of release and relief as the final exhale returns it to a state unbound by matter—an ecstatic liberation, reserved only for the winged, the enlightened, and the dead.

3. Why does the author think Swifts are globally endangered?

• The author suggests that one of the reasons Swifts are globally endangered is because when we do not know or understand another being, we become detached from the truth of its preciousness.

[03] Perception of Beauty and Aging

1. How has the author's perception of beauty changed over time?

• The author's heart breaks a little for how often they will have walked by beauty without realization or acknowledgement, having fallen for the lie of mandatory urgency and constant doing, and forming blinkers they did not know were there.
• The author used to overlook the poignant stories co-authored by skin, nature, and time when looking at people in their elder years.

2. What is the author's perspective on aging and old age?

• The author wonders whether our pathological lauding of youth speaks to a damaged relationship to wisdom.
• The author feels an ache for the way in which someone impatient with the pace of an elderly body or mind will one day relate to their own aging, as we are more often punished by our unkindnesses than for them.
• The author sees old age as a privilege, and hopes to meet the years ahead unarmored and grateful.