The Early Bird

Three Little Birds

It’s springtime in Minnesota the days are growing longer and longer and you can open up those windows and let that cool evening air refresh your house.  The sun rises earlier and earlier every morning and the birds are singing.  In fact the birds are singing their asses off when you get right down to it.

I don’t sleep well and wake at next to no noise and/or a little bit of light. 

I find it difficult to impossible to fall back asleep after I am awake. 

I also have a clock that flashes the time and temperature on the ceiling above my bed.

Add all these factors together and the bottom line is I have come to view the birds singing as something for the birds.  I have regularly been tracking when I wake up and here the first bird chirping.  I can tell you this much, if someone tells you they get up with the birds or the early bird gets the worm, I would ask them exactly when they think this occurs.

My three week observation would say somewhere between 3:50 and 4:10 AM.  It was 4:10 this morning approximately and I began to ask myself just what the hell are these birds trying to prove.  Are the birds like people where their bird protestant work ethic drives them to get up way too early and make sure everyone else is aware of this fact? 

What about the other birds, do they sleep through the chattering of these birds that get up first or do they burry their head in their wing and try to get hour of sleep?  Do they get mad at the birds that get up first and start yakking away?  What do early bird, early birds do at 4:10 in the dark? 

Why are they blabbing like there’s no tomorrow at such an ungodly hour?  What exactly are they saying anyway – I can’t make sense of it – I like to think I have a little Doctor Doolittle in me and even still it’s gibberish.  In fact, I think these first chirpers are making noise just to be a pain to everyone else.  They are like people talking on their cell phones at a volume that makes the phone unnecessary (assuming the other party is in the State of Minnesota).

I got some advice for these birds and anyone who talks too loud on their cell phone – I’m sick and oh so tired and I ain’t going stand for your crap any more.  Shut up or watch out.

Passed (past) Due Date

Minnesota recently celebrated its 150th birthday.  Didn’t seem to be much fanfare about the event – maybe there’s more on the way, though.  Seems to me Iowa changed their license plates for the occasion and seemed to work it into their marketing identity for quite awhile.   So why does Iowa play up their anniversary and for Minnesota (at least to this point) it seems like a relatively minor event.

I am not sure what the true value of marking milestones in the life or an organization or individual are.  I once calculated the number of days I lived on earth thinking that your 15,000 or 20,000 day is a lot cooler than your 52nd birthday.  I put an important date on my calendar but no longer remember the day or even my job at the time and so I doubt it’s still there.

As the administrator of a very old parish (which is part of a very, very old Church), I wonder what is appropriate and also exactly when do you start counting.  I can verify Holy Name of Jesus was incorporated in the state of Minnesota on 7/11/1878 – twenty years and two months after Minnesota was founded.  However, the written history of the parish identifies priests celebrating mass in the area in 1856.  So when does our history start?  Whatever date you choose, how should a parish celebrate a milestone like 125 or 150 years?

It seems like every organization places a little different importance on milestones.  I suspect that the milestones probably mean more to organizations where there is greater longevity in the membership and a greater sense of history and its importance.  It might also have something to do with the speed of change.  If we are in a constant change of flux, the past would become seemingly less important more quickly (if that makes any sense).

At any rate, we don’t seem to do much here to honor the past and it wouldn’t appear anyone is too concerned with marking milestones.  I am not sure what the consequences of this sort of behavior will be but it seems to convey a transient approach rather than a long-term (or even eternal) which is probably what you would want in a parish.