There and Back Again: Lessons from a Duck's Life

Sometimes the best to be said about a trip is that you went, did the best you could, and made it back again. I thought it a good idea to take a lesson from my sister's quackers.

They spend the night in the barn to avoid the critters for whom they look more like dinner than companions. They hurry in not because they are afraid of the critters that lurk in the night but because their food awaits them. They can't do much about all the things that go thump in the night, but they can have a nice dinner. Sometimes it is wisdom to think no further than your own tummy. And then when morning comes, they hurry to the pond for a frolic in the water and whatever ducks do all day.

See the quackers. See the quackers go. Go, quackers, go.

But not even idealized quackers have a perfect life.

The male quacker--in the lead in the photo below--is missing a few feathers on the back of his neck because a Great Dane puppy thought he looked like a plaything. Thus, Fate for a pampered duck took the form of a brief stint in the jaws of a giant. As in the epics of Gilgamesh or wily Odysseus, intercession allowed the quacker to see another round of pond-barn-pond and whatever dreams a duck may have.

Fate from time to time picks us up in its toothy jaws and gives us a good shake. It is difficult to have a balanced perspective dangling from a giant's maw, but if we are lucky enough to get one more round of paddling to and from the pond, then we need to take a lesson from the quackers and get on with it with as much gusto as we can with a cold breeze down the back of our neck where those feathers used to be.