On the Way to Get Buttons

Today I went to the fabric store with a friend to get buttons for my nuno felted jacket. I was so excited to finish it to see how it would look. However, something even more interesting and "symbolic" happened on the way to the store. Along the way is the state prison. And beside the prison runs a creek by which a large number of Canadian Geese have taken up residence. The geese have now lived through several generations and have become very comfortable living along "their creek" by the prison, right beside a very busy street. Traffic travels fast, but of course, the geese don't. There are signs along the street telling folks that the geese cross, but who reads signs when busy getting here and there so very quickly these days. And the geese cross the street very slowly and distractedly whenever things look better on the other side, or a buddy goose calls them over. Yesterday, as we were traveling along the street at a pretty good pace, I came upon the spot where the geese were located. At first I thought that there had been an accident, but on getting closer and hearing all the honking, I realized that all of the cars were stopped on the street to let at least five geese cross. The cars were honking to get the geese to cross faster, which had no effect, but also to get other cars like me to stop. This was a ritual that went on daily in order to keep the geese and their goslings safe. I also took up the honking, not blaring honking, but just a signal to fellow drivers to watch for the geese. The geese seemed to know what this meant, because as we sat there honking more geese decided to cross. Pretty soon another and then another goose decided to cross. I have to say that this small wonder, of all this traffic stopping for all of these geese, made my heart swell. It was so symbolic that this was happening right next to a prison that housed folks who had done some horrible crimes. The very goodness of people who go out of their way to save geese against those who have committed heinous crimes against humans and animals. The later are the things that we hear about day in and day out from the media. How many times do we hear about the small wonders of people developing signals to save geese. I think that our media has it so upside down about what we really want to hear. Let's hear it for the 

geese and the people who keep them safe.