Evening star., 1949-11-19
This and That
By Charles E. TraceiUeU

Birds come and go, but to many watchers
the cardinal remains the best Of them all.
1t is beautiful, interesting and hopeful.
Few living creatures embody our hope
more than this feathered one. Just as the
b1uebird stands for happiness, in our minds,
and the little chickadee for cheer, 20 the
cardinal with its bright coat and sturdy crest
seems to embody hope In the best way.
Hope Is the word for him. as he perches
there in the shrubbery. bright spot in the
green, still green 50 late.
The season has little to do with the red
birds red.
Except for the young males in their first
fall, when they more resemble their mothers
than their fathers, the cardinal seems to
haunt hope in the wind.
All birds speak the same language to us.
that Is why they are so popular, probably the
most popular Of all forms Of life.
Yet the redbird, with its flame in the wind,
appeals directly to the human heart.
He has . way all his own of saying. "Well,
today may not be 50 good, and yesterday was
pretty bad, but tomorrow is going to be
better"
Humanity needs some bird optimism, the
hope exemplided by the cardinal.
It Ii easy enough to say that the animals
and the birds, and even the insects, know
nothing.
The truth Is, they know great deal.
They know enough to keep nrm hold on
the realities Of time.
This tells them, although they have no
books. that living things have been through
troubled times before.
The birds, for instance, often have suffered.
Cold sleet storms have wiped out hundreds
Of thousands Of them.
Some species. such as the passenger pigeon.
have vanished from the earth.
But the cardinal still speaks to our hearts,
there is the bush. and the colder the winter
day, the more eloquent he is.
. Provided. Of course, that We have the
equipment to receive his message.
X **+
Hope Is In the wind, whenever this good
bird, he Of the red coat and saucy topknot.
He is like the old patent medicine man,
who lifted his finger solemnly In the air. and
pronounced the verdict:
There Is hope!"
OF course there Is. Every chickadee. every
titmouse, every cardinal, knows II. Why not
we?
Yet we bemoan the rise Of the proletariat.
or sniff disdainfully ct political names We do
not like. or resent something. when all the
time peoples have done the same thing 70
often before.
And no matter how Low the horizon, the
sun has come up, at least 30 far.
~ ~
II we trust to the common sense Of the
human mind. . special quality, we need not
fear atom bombs. or strange people.
All living things have solid basis Of living
common sense, which usually comes to the
fore after great stresses and strains
It Is hopeful to belisve-and We like to be-
lieve the cardinal bird would think 1t. too
that things too aNful to contemplate viii
result In causing their abandonment. after
q time.
Just as nations tacitly failed to use poison
gas, 50 they may not use the atom bomb,
after all, or any Of the other shocking things
prepared In laboratories
Common sense, human hope I'd operation,
may save us, even when science fails U.s.
Each rising sun brings us closer to sonae-
thing. Let u continue to think that It Will
b0 good. The cardinal Is sure Of 1t. He Is Just
outside your window telling you so
The common sense Of all living things may
Just as well win Il lose. because We I'll do 20
want to live.