Attacking the Image of Our Self
There is a beautiful male cardinal outside my office window. Every few minutes, he launches himself aggressively at the window, bangs his head and wings against it for a few seconds, and then flies back to the branch of the tree to glare… at himself… once again.
He never seems to figure it out.
He’s not the only one.
So often, we see a reflection of ourselves in the mirror of other people and their actions, and we “protect” ourselves by lashing out against them. No matter that we hit an immovable resistance. No matter that that which we are offended and threatened by seems to meet us head on, peck when we peck, flap when we flap, and otherwise be as terrible and angry and hell-bent on mutual destruction as we are.
When we see reflected “evil” in another, maybe what we’re really seeing is our own fear reflected back in God’s Mirror.
The cardinal can’t reason, can’t tap, and no manner of communication I’ve tried so far has seemed to calm him down. Whack… whack… WHACK! There he goes again. So beautiful… and so out of his mind with fear.
I wish he would stop and just admire himself, admire the reflection of himself… wherever he sees it. I wish we all would.
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Melissa writes: If I might offer a suggestion to help with your story about the male cardinal… I do understand your point about our own human suffering; it is most definitely a valid and difficult one. However, I can offer a possible way to help the cardinal.
You most likely can prevent his flying into the window by taping a cutout of a black crow in flight on the inside of the window. Some nature/bird stores sell them. I choose to make my own with black construction paper. Since birds don’t understand windows and can harm or even kill themselves by flying into them, the crow’s image will keep most birds at a distance.
(Rick: I just printed one out and have taped it to the window. We’ll see! Thanks for the suggestion.)