BIRD CITY!

As I was sitting out on the porch downloading new photos of Bluebirds (such as the one above, just landing on the birdhouse to feed the young!), and the goldfinches were taking their evening sips from the birdbath, I witnessed a male hummingbird doing a swinging territorial dance over the reddish-toned Yarrow in my garden. Those of you who have seen the hummingbird's dance ~ which involves flying back and forth swiftly in an inverted arc ~ will appreciate the fact that the little fellar kept inching closer and closer to the end fence post! Being so quick-witted, however, he fared just fine.

This is the busy season. All the birds in charge of young are industriously feeding them or fledging them, and it seems they have little time to stop at all.

It seems to me we are in the busy (sleepless) season of the campaigns too. And that worries me just a bit. There is so much information to get out to the public that the various central headquarters send off sound bites to their various groups (local and/or national). It is assumed that everything has been fact-checked and is accurate and true.

But isn't that a little like what happens in the Faux-cloned media outlets? I'm thinking of how Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert might show a succession of assertions made on a particular topic by a number of television news outlets and they are all using the exact same buzz words.

We can be careful to be a bit more Dean than that and make sure that what we are passing along this season is real and truthful (not merely truthy). Then, we can offer it deliberately and sincerely. That takes a little more time, but the quality difference could very well be what wins the election.

~listener

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