Lost Treasures
For years I’ve had a pair of binoculars on the dash of my mini-van. They have kept a variety of feathers from blowing out the window. Two hawk feathers reside on the dash today but earlier this year there was an Ibis, an Egret and even a tail feather from a White Heron. That was the jewel of my collection though my son declared it mangy and bug infested. Before water bird season there were turkey feathers. You understand the pattern, I’m sure. I’m a bird watcher. What ever birds I stake out, their feathers make their way to the dash of my car.
But not just birds have I spied through those lenses. Only a week ago I was blessed with the view of three otters, a mother and two pups. They dipped and dove in and out of the water with such speed that I couldn’t count them until they came on shore to eat a fish. It was amazing. I watched them play and chase fish until my arms were too sore to hold the binoculars and my eyes had fogged the lenses.
I can’t remember when I got the binoculars or where they came from. I can remember the time before them. It was actually sad trying to see deer in the dusk with an old army monocular I had found in the barn.
Now the binoculars are gone.
It had been a warm day. I was at the pond looking for the little alligator. An Anhinga circled overhead several times watching me as I watched it when one of the inner mirrors dislodged.
First I banged the side with the heel of my hand. Then I unscrewed the lenses only to find that I couldn’t reach the dislodged mirror without a small Phillips-head screw driver. Then I recited a few unkind words and decided to heave them into the pond as that would be a fitting, final resting place.
I was swinging them back and forth by their neck strap imagining with no small delight the distance I could get when regret entered my mind. It wasn’t, so much, regret for the environment that was about to be impacted, or for the juvenile nature of my decision making process but for the loss of the binoculars themselves.
“Maybe I can fix them. I have a Phillips-head screw driver at the house.”
“Maybe I should give them to the Salvation Army. I’m sure someone can fix them.”
We live in such a disposable society and I am myself very inclined toward disposable products. I know they fill land fields which pollute the land. I know they encourage a ‘give up’ or ‘give in’ character rather than a ‘try harder’ or ‘try smarter’ or ‘keep trying’ attitude. I’ve even heard that the divorce rate increased as the manufacture of disposable products increased. Personally I think paper plates and pampers would help a marriage.
I would like to tell you that I took those binoculars home and worked at it till I fixed them. I would hate to tell you that they rest somewhere at the bottom of that little pond. I will tell you that they no longer reside on the dash of my car and it makes me sad.
He’s so cute. He just cracks me up. I hope you get as much laughter and as much endorphins from watching him as I do.