Tuesday, July 5, 2011

S0mewhere outside my kitchen window, an unseen bird is making seagull noises. Because I live in the middle of a forest, the possibility of an actual seagull squawking among my trees does not seem likely. But who knows? A few days ago, while I was sitting in a lawn chair at a Babe Ruth baseball game, an eagle glided over the field--very low, so close to the ground that I could easily see his talons--followed by a cranky screaming gull in hot pursuit. The eagle was considerably larger than the gull but seemed to be abashed, having been caught in some embarrassment involving the gull's nest, I presume. The triumphant bad-tempered gull chased him into a fir tree, where he sat for some time, hunched up, with his feathers all awry. He did not look much like a nation's symbol of power and prosperity. What he did look like was a formerly successful hedge fund manager with a cocaine habit and a new divorce.

Today is the day that I have to go back to work, like many of the rest of you. I am not eager, and neither are you, I daresay. Truckloads of copyediting await me, which on the one hand is good since Tom is temporarily unemployed yet on the other hand is not good since Tom is temporarily unemployed. I tell you: there's always some pressing reason not to want to work for a living.

2 comments:

Ruth said...

Though it is summer "vacation" for teachers and I meant the quotation marks, I am back at planning and pondering the tragedy here in Holderness. What shall be a fitting tribute to Evie? I think books in the school library with a special bookplate to HONOR her love of kids, reading and loving to read. In regards to the gull, the parent instinct even in those of us who are not actual parents is VERY strong.

Julia Munroe Martin said...

I had to laugh at your comparison of the eagle to the formerly successful hedge fund manager -- hilarious! I also completely and totally agree that there's always a pressing reason not to want to work for a living. (Although I am envious of your loads of copyediting; I've had a dry spell with editing/writing jobs. Thank goodness my husband who was unemployed last year now has found some contract work....I can so relate to your plight...)