Silly geese?

In the arboretum that's across the street from our home some wild Canadian geese make their home, at least sometimes. Yesterday I observed mother goose and her six goslings on the pond that's there. It's always interesting to watch wild life, especially as they're about their "family" things.

It looked like mother goose was trying to teach her offspring how to fly. The whole family (didn't see Mr. Gander) was swimming across the pond, with the goslings quite a ways ahead of mama goose. When they reached the side of the pond, the goslings began to fly just above the water back to meet their mama. When they were all together again the goslings rose and flew just above the water to the other side of the pond from whence they had come. So mama began her slow swim back to meet them.

Perhaps many of the problems we have in our society come from a lack of this simple kind of family relationships. If family is important among the birds (in this case geese), then perhaps many are missing a very important ingredient in their families among us humans. Geese are often referred to as "silly birds." Perhaps if they could name us as humans they would call us "silly people." And just maybe that's the way it should be!

Pilgrim on the way