Evening star., 1944-02-03
This and That
By Charles E. Trace1UeH.

Nothing is either good or bad, but
thinking makes it so. A wise man
said that long time ago, and it is
still true, as witness the conversation
OF two persons going along the street.
They were woman and a school
child. The former said to the latter,
1t won't be long until spring Is here"
and she was thinking that the house
heating season would soon be at an
end
The child, thinking of school, said
Yes, school is half over
Probably the child was thinking of
spring vacation, and the woman of
spring house cleaning.
X X
The person who happens to like birds
will wait anxiously for the return of
the migrants, the robins, wood thrushes,
house wrens, and the rest of them.
Some fortunate bird lovers will eagerly
look forward to the return of certain
individual birds.
We have two which we hope will
come in on two wings
They are Lilly Belle, the pet robin,
and crippled catbird.
one leg stuck out at an angle, and
the wings seemed set on rather crooked.
One wing stuck out in strange way.
If Lilly Belle returns, it will be her
third season.
She was picked up off the sidewalk
three years ago, and raised "by hand !"
Characteristics which will make her
known are certain chattering, as if
talking, and the return to a set branch
on the maple tree.
If a robin lights there, talks" freely,
and begins to sidle along the branch.
first in one direction and then in the
other, there will be no doubt that this
is Lilly.
1t is pleasant to know certain indi-
vidual birds, but it is not at all neces-
sary.
Many bird observers feel that not to
know one bird from another is best,
because 1t gives the watcher a sense of
happiness he scarcely ever knows in
dealing with any other form of life.
In other words, when he watches the
songsters without knowledge of indi-
vidualism ne is freed from most of their
suffering, illness and death.
He does not refuse to look but merely
does not know. In days when suffering
and death beat frantic wings around
the world, perhaps it is good for GER
tain temperaments to have this sense
OF no failure, no sickness, no end, at
least IN one department of living,
n X X X
1t is for this reason, as much as for
any other, that persons inclined to nerv-
cusness will find that bird watching is
a most wholesome recreation.
Not every one goes to the movies, and
no doubt not every one reads, or listens
to music.
Certainly not all are given to outdoor
sports, or have a genuine interest in
politics. The meshes of totalitarianism
creep into all countries, and some of its
aspects are not German. Some Amert-
cans can and do have Nazi minds. They
want to force every one to do the same
thing, and to think the same way. This
Is Nazi doctrine, whatever it is called.
So some people love the birds, rather
than some other department or activity
which somebody else loudly thinks they
should be interested in.
If the people who like to watch birds
are Of sensitive, nervous dispositions
they will find it best not to know any
individual bird out of the hundreds
they watch.
Do not try to know them, individually,
and especially do not name them.
To name living thing brings in sor-
row, In the end.
MY name is Noname," said Ulysses.
and he was wise in this, as in many
other things.