NOTES ON TWO SPARROWS.

NOTES ON TWO SPARROWS.
I grew up on a farm in Virginia in the 1960’s.
Ya, I know, that was before the age of irony.
Well, when I was growing up we had birds.
Lots of them. I remember seeing large swarms of birds moving across the sky. It was a typical sight… so I thought nothing about it.
Until recently. Well, in the past few years I’ve become interested in farming and gardening again.
Which means I’ve become interested in birds and bugs again.
Oh… by the way… long ago… before irony and all that… we had BUGS… and lots of them. You couldn’t drive across town without having to clean the bug splatter off your car’s windshield when you reached your destination.
So, where were we??? Oh yeah… birds and bugs.
They go together ya know.
You can’t have one without the other. Birds need the bugs or they starve. Kill the bugs and you eventually kill the birds.
Well out there in the garden for the past few years.. I’ve been noticing — THERE AIN’T NO GOD DAMN BIRDS to speak of. And it’s really troubling. It’s not a good sign.
I’d be out in the garden for two hours and only notice 4 birds at most — in two hours!!! Sometimes NO BIRDS in two hours.
I’d shake my head… and just figure we’re killing all the birds with our bug spray… and pesticides… and that damn Orkin man spraying the neighbors’ house every year for “scary spiders”.
Hate those Orkin guys.
So… as a kid on the farm, I took birds for granted.
Now I don’t.
So, yesterday, I stumbled in this passage in Matthew where Jesus says “Two sparrows cost just a penny, right? Yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father.”
And I was moved.
I’ve known about that passage for more then 50 years… yet I was rather cold to those words. But now, now that I’m out in the garden and paying close attention to birds and bugs and their importance and their delicacy and all… now that passage means more to me.
Not one sparrow falls indeed.
And those freewiller christians harping on their endless hell tripe.
We’re all just sparrows ya know.
Grace to you guys.
Ace.

Dana Mimm REPIES:
Oh my God! It’s not until you said this that I realized how vastly different it is now! No bird flocks, no bugs on the windshield. No lightning bugs. Nothing. I get a few birds in my backyard and mosquitoes but that’s it. Crazy!

MY REPLY:

Dana, it worries me. And get this… Every spring rain, I walk around my neighborhood and try to find earthworms in the rain gutters. I bring the worms back to my garden. I used to find some 20 worms per block… but these days… I’m lucky to find one worm within a 5 block area. Damn neighbors spraying Roundup on their lawns. Roundup kills living things. (I believe Roundup is a watered down version of AGENT ORANGE… that terrible chemical they used in the Vietnam War. Agent Orange gave folks cancer, birth defects, organ failure, all kinds of nasty stuff.– notice the class action lawsuits against Roundup.) No birds. No bugs. No worms. What’s next? No people?