Thursday, November 13, 2014

Okay, So I Changed My Mind!!!




Carolyn J. Rose

 
  “I’d love to see a condor in the wild,” I said as Mike clicked on an Earthflight program we’d recorded and saved for a day we wanted a little education with our entertainment.

The photography was stunning and the bird-cam view of the Andes was amazing. But twenty minutes later, I amended my statement to, “I’d love to see a condor soaring. At a distance.”
 Viewed from afar as they ride the thermals, they appear powerful and majestic. Close up, it’s clear these birds are oversized vultures—hunch-shouldered, bald-headed, carrion-devouring vultures that have trouble getting off the ground with a full crop.

This wasn’t the first distance/close-up disenchantment episode in my life. In fact, if I’d kept track of such episodes, this one would have been assigned a number somewhere in the thousands. There have been dresses that looked terrific on display but not on me, shoes that tortured my feet, cars that broke down on a monthly basis, meals where eating the napkin would have been a wiser—and tastier—choice, dates that . . .

Well, let’s not go there. There point is there can be a big gap between a “romanticized” image and reality. A little research and a closer look can’t hurt. And changing your mind—and your bucket list—is okay.

So, I won’t be saving up for a trip to South America—at least not a trip with the specific goal of getting close to a condor.

But penguins—black, white, and jaunty—I’d love to get close to a bunch of penguins.

Or would I?

2 comments:

  1. Hi Carolyn,

    I have been up close and personal with a penguin, albeit in a controlled environment, at the Sea World Centre in Florida!

    The noise from the 20 or so selected penguins was deafening, the smell was nauseating and the 'little nip' they gave was not quite so little or painless!

    I still loved the experience though.

    Yvonne :)

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    1. Hmmm - deafening noise - sounds like an average day as a substitute teacher. LOL

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