Be Like The Birds -- Discard Quickly, Old, Out-dated, Dysfunctional Generalizations

Even birds -- indeed, probably all animals with any kind of a brain -- make generalizations. And sometimes these generalizations take them away from 'reality' and away from 'functionality'. But they recover quickly. People too often make generalizations that take them away from reality and away from functionality. However, people don't always recover as quickly as birds do from their 'dysfunctional generalizations'. Birds are very 'reality-bound'. People can lose reality -- and not come back.

I moved my bird-feeder today from outside my upstairs living room window and sliding door with a black metal fence on it -- to the downstairs and outside backyard, a distance of about 20 feet outwards towards the swamp at the end of my backyard as well as down to the ground below.

Having re-constructed by bird-feeder -- fresh with new bird feed -- down below and out in the backyard, I sat upstairs and watched as first a morning dove and then a blackbird flew over to my upstairs ledge where the bird-feeder used to be and parked themselves, looking around for the food that wasn't there any more except perhaps a few tidbit leftovers still on my ledge... I don't know whether they figured out that the bird feeder had been moved at this exact moment or not, but having looked around for about 5 minutes, each, respectively, they both up and flew away, not to the new birdfeeder site -- but just away to a tree that they came from or something...

A half an hour of this, and the rest of the birds seemed to have figured things out properly -- the bird feeder had been moved to probably a better place for their reasoned safety -- and no more birds came back to my ledge. Now all the bird action was in my back yard -- at the site of the new feeder.

The birds had 'adjusted to reality' -- and left their 'dysfunctional generalizations' that led them away from the reality of where their food now was located -- behind. It only took half an hour with only two birds falling temporary victims to their 'outdated generalizations'.

That man should discard so quickly his (or her) outdated, dysfunctional generalizations.

People often take a lot longer to 'adjust to new circumstances'. Reality changes -- and they/we keep persisting with the same old, outdated, dysfunctional generalizations. Reality evolves -- and we stay the same. Our 'food' moves and we keep looking for our 'food' in 'the old place' where it no longer is.

Be like the birds. Learn fast, evolve -- and move on with new, fresh, up-to-date, functional generalizations. Go to where the food is; not to where the food was.

dgb, June 29th, 2008.