A Gray Man's Gray Philosophy for a Gray World**

A Gray Man’s

Gray Philosophy

For a Gray World

 

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Between the Years 2008 and 2015,

I Took Nearly a Quarter-Million

Photographs of Wild Birds.

 

It Was the Most Satisfying

Activity of My Adult Life.

 

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By early March, common sawbills

Were navigating the icy waters

And snow-covered rock islands

Of the Lower Winona Lake.

 

Soon, there were

More than a dozen

Ring-necked ducks,

Hooded mergansers,

 

 

 

A species of deep-diving grebes,

And an abundance of ornate wood ducks.

 

Later, there were cardinals,

Blue jays, green herons, kingfishers

Orioles, and many other species of birds.

 

It was as if God were personally tending

To my deepest spiritual needs and desires.

 

But what made these majestic events possible

Was the construction of a strip mall west of the woods.

 

A large swath of land

Had been cleared,

 

And that caused wildlife

To flee eastward to the spillway.

 

It made me wonder

If every blessing we experience

Is diminished by its occurrence

In a demiurgic environment.

 

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Maybe we should be thankful

For what we have when we have it.

It is a gray philosophy, but the alternative

Is to live with a gigantic chip on your shoulder,

Doomed to fret over every discouraging event,

With your every good intension fatally corrupted

By the unrealistic and self-destructive belief

That the world can, or even worse, should

Be made subordinate to your will.