I absolutely love this image, which I found on a blog called Bioephemera.
Vireo bellii nest with newspaper, photograph by Rosamond Purce
I came across the photo through my feedreader (see earlier post on RSS) a few days ago, and it's stayed in my mind. I keep returning to it...
I wonder: What would my nest look like, if I could make such a beautiful thing?
What words, which scraps of text would I want to make my home with?
What bits of language would I choose to keep me warm?
I don't normally write retrospective essays at the close of one year, or my hopes and goals for the coming one. But my thoughts do keep returning to this image, and to title that accompanied it: "Words to Nest By."
And given that we've just rung in 2009, maybe it's appropriate to think about which words I'd want to keep from 2008, which ones I'd line my nest with...
Here's just a few tidbits that warm me:
"Yes We Can"...the Iowa caucuses..."Democracy is not a state, it is an act. It is actions."--Rep John Lewis...blue Indiana...
...we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time."
--Barack Obama, March 18, 2008
If I was a flower growing wild and free
All I'd want is you to be my sweet honey bee.
And if I was a tree growing tall and green
All I'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves
If you were a river in the mountains tall
The rumble of your water would be my call.
If you were the winter, I know I'd be the snow
Just as long as you were with me, when the cold winds blow.
If you were a wink, I'd be a nod
If you were a seed, well I'd be a pod.
If you were the floor, I'd wanna be the rug
And if you were a kiss, I know I'd be a hug
All I want is you, will you be my bride
Take me by the hand and stand by my side
All I want is you, will you stay with me?
Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea.
---Barry Louis Polisar, "All I Want Is You"
(Juno soundtrack, watch video)
And you? What would you line your nest with?