We have to realize that the child’s world is without economic purpose. A child doesn’t understand – happy ignorance – that people are paid to do things. To a child the policeman rules the street for self-important majesty; the furnace man stokes the furnace because he loves the noise of falling coal and the fun of getting dirty; the grocer is held to his counter by the lure of aromatic spices and the joy of giving. And in this very ignorance there is a grain of truth. The child’s economic world may be the one that we are reaching out in vain to find. Here is a path in the wood of economics that some day might be followed to new discovery. Meantime, the children know it well and gather beside it their flowers of beautiful illusion.
Source: On the Front Line of Life by Stephen Leacock; in John Robson's Words Worth Noting
Posted: 2025 Nov 15
Guess they to have become blasé about humans at many of the Florida boardwalks.
Jim R – Yes, they don’t seem to worry much about us. If they do, I guess they stay far away, like the night herons.
Their return to a nearby reedy pond bordering our road is the fulfillment of the promise of spring. This reminder is timely in its own way.
Laurna – I was walking in a bird sanctuary area in Phoenix a few years ago and heard a bird call that I then didn’t recognize. A guy walking past stopped dead in his tracks and exclaimed, “A red-winged blackbird!” As he said, once heard, never forgotten. He remembered them from his youth, lying in bed and listening to them.
Just back from Los Cabos, where as soon as a diner rose from the table, a flock of local birds descended on it. Isabel, I think you might have gotten some wonderful pictures of a row or eight or more birds, all sitting on the back of a chair, facing the table, watching for the human to rise and leave. Some that looked like house sparrows, some apparently from the oriole family, no doubt some from the finches… But I didn’t get any pictures to send to Merlin for identification.
The one thing all of them have is blinding speed when they flash through the restaurant area, apparently aiming at a spot about two inches above or to the side of my face.
Jim T
Jim T – Los Cabos, here I come! Well, not likely, but it sure sounds like fun. Except for the part where you worry about getting smacked in the face in a flurry of feathers.
In our part of the world – Southern Alberta -the red winged blackbird rather than the robin is the true harbinger of spring. That reedy whistle brings lightness to our step and joy to our hearts.
Ian – Interesting. We have tons of RWBBs around Ottawa, too, but not in suburban neighbourhoods, only in marshy environments. Down by the river, that sort of thing. So maybe it’s our first spring bird, too, but most of us don’t see it.