Feeding Big Man (not for children)

Once upon a time, there was a village near the river

like other villages, but in this village was a man - taller

than everyone else. He was jolly and bright, an optimist who

could build huts, plough fields, catch lots of  fish too.

With each passing day the man grew more confident

as villagers grew more adoring and complacent

forgetting their skills they focused on worship

investing their hopes, their eyes looking up.

So in awe of big man they planned how and when

to feed, wash and clothe him, they elected chairmen

their mandate to instruct the village of their duty

laws were established to keep him strong and beefy.

Soon their man got so big he couldn't leave his house

stuck behind his door, fearful chairmen marched like grouse

up and down the streets in a solemn search for

answers now that tradesmen were retired, poor

keeping big man in style and manner to which

he'd become accustomed, his appetite large and rich

too big for his humble home, he demanded more

– a castle or a mansion, while the villagers bore

the cost with their labour, health, and their virgin

daughters, crushed under weight of his lust, his sin

but what could they do? It was tradition and might

until a child crept with courage to the castle late at night

to speak with the big man, to plead and to show him

how the village was so poor, so weary, their lives so grim

her last feint hope for reason and compassion

and he wept, overcome with guilt he thanked the maiden

promised to create a village based on fairness, equality

and when the girl ran home to tell her kin they were happy

but the chairmen were outraged and charged that girl

with treason, called her wicked, wanton and evil

to go above her station, above their counsel, to enter

the sacred castle of the big man, so they banished her

offering instead to save the village, to bring them wealth

by invading their neighbours with arrows, with stealth.

Forgetting their hunger they painted their faces

thumping their chests they mounted wild horses

charging the commons, the forests, the rivers

killing their innocent neighbourly sleepers

no blood was enough to fill up this story

no more was the big man the object of glory

filled with ambition the warriors planned

campaigns everywhere, let peace be damned

big man and chairmen were sacked and replaced

with new gods their history was censored, erased

forgetting their skills as fishers and builders

as lovers and fathers, as farmers and brothers

and so dear reader don't look for an ending

this tale of a village breaking and bending

there is never an end to the battles and wars

as long as the mind gets stuck on the scores

of winners and losers and what is worth saving.

Socrates the Hummingbird

978-0-9880043-4-4 

Stripe-tailed hummingbird by Dirk van der Made

This is a tale about a family of hummingbirds here on Vancouver Island.  

Now these hummingbirds gather to feed on the Red-Flowering Current bush. There are many of these bushes to feed on and they are large too – as tall as 7 feet and just as wide.   

In the spring this bush produces thousands of tiny flowers, and the hummingbirds feed on nectar deep inside each flower with their skinny long tongues.

Inside each flower are stamens and on the stamens there is  a fine dusty powder called pollen. As the birds feed on the nectar the pollen falls on their brow and is deposited on the other flowers they visit.  

This fertilizes the flowers and eventually they become berries. Berries are food for larger birds and mammals. Inside the berries are seeds which pass through the stomach of  these creatures and fall somewhere on the earth where the rain, wind, and fallen leaves fertilize the seeds as they lay dormant until the next spring.

The seed, in time, becomes a seedling and the seedling grows into another Red-Flowered Current bush, producing more food for the hummingbirds.  

Now the hummingbird family in this story didn’t know all this. They believed the current bush was sacred, and that they had a duty to feed from the flowers of all the current bushes in their territory. 

The trouble came when there were so many hummingbirds coming for the flowers they had to line up and wait their turn. As they waited their wings would be flapping away at 80 times per second, which is 4,800 times a minute.  You can imagine how exhausting that would be, and how grumpy they would get if some other bird came and pushed in.  Although they were family it was hard not to fight in times such as these.

Then one day they noticed a stranger, a hummingbird that looked a little different. This bird would fly right by and not get in line. They wondered where he was going.  He looked well fed, not starving at all.  With each day they became more  and more curious. Why was this stranger not anxious or grumpy? Why did he look so content?

One day they decided they would call him over and ask him. “Hey Stranger” they chirped “how come you never eat at the current bush yet you look so well fed?”

“Because there are other flowers to feed from – and the current bush is so busy I would have to line up”.

“Other flowers? Other flowers! Besides the current bush? That’s not right!”

“We have a solemn duty to get our nectar from the current bush. It was good enough for our fathers and good enough for our mothers, and it’s good enough for us.” replied one of the birds.

“But why is it your duty to only feed at the current bush?” asked Stranger.

“I don’t know why” answered Ms. Elder “Something inside tells me it’s the right thing to do”.

“How do you know if other flowers are good for you?” asked Mr. Elder. “What if they are poisonous?”

“Look” said Stranger “I will show you where the other flowers are that you can feed from.  Follow me.” 

So a small delegation of elders followed the stranger. He took them to a field where different flowers grew in different shapes and colours – pink, purple, orange, red – and they looked stunning. There he pointed out the ones he found most tasty.

Not all were blooming at the same time – hummingbirds find nectar in Asters, Blue-Eyed Mary’s, Kinnikinnick, Nodding Onion, Red Columbine and Trumpet Honeysuckle, throughout the summer and fall they live on the island.

“They look pretty but I don’t know if I want to stick my tongue in them” confessed Mr. Elder.

So the Stranger flew to each of those plants that had blooms and drank from them, then flew back to where the elders were perching.

“Look” he boasted “I am still alive, I am well, I am fed.”

So Mr. Elder went to the flowers that Stranger had visited and tried the nectar.  “Hmm” he remarked “they have different flavours, possibly an acquired taste … but yes – they are good.” Then all the other members of the delegation tried the flowers, and thanked Stranger for helping them.

Upon returning to their family they concluded they were entering a new age where there was choice – yes the elders were right to feed at the current bush – to be faithful to the ones who had always fed them, and so was Stranger right to find new flowers, new tastes, new vistas, to feed from. 

The age of the epicurean, le gastronome, the gourmet had arrived and hummingbirds would no longer have to line up to feed on the current bush all the time. Of course they  still fed there, but now they had more choice.

They thanked the stranger, invited him to join the family, where he was no longer a stranger. They named him Socrates.

Princess Self Esteem

Once upon a time, long, long ago, there lived a Princess whose name was Essie. It was said this princess was very beautiful.  The news of her beauty spread far and wide across neighbouring kingdoms. 

Rumours like “Her beauty radiates outward”, “anyone who gazes on her face will fall in love immediately”, “she casts a spell on all who meet her” – spread out beyond the hills and valleys, and became the subject of conversation everywhere.

A few kingdoms over was a Prince who was really intrigued with these rumours, and he was looking for a princess bride. (You knew this was coming right?) Every time he heard about her beauty he imagined big brown eyes with long eyelashes, a tiny button nose, and full soft red lips.  The more he heard the bigger her eyes became, the smaller her nose and the fuller her lips.  Eventually he was tortured by these images and decided he had to meet this princess.

So he travelled days and nights without rest, up the hills, through the valleys, across the rivers to her castle.  He knocked on the door and demanded to see the king.  By this time he looked pretty dishevelled but was so exhausted he didn’t even think of how he looked.

“I am the King!” said the man who opened the door. The prince thought “Oh he must be a Unitarian”.  

At first the King thought the Prince looked a mess and wasn’t sure whether he wanted his daughter to meet him, but as he heard his story of the rumours and his torment, he agreed to let him meet her.  He asked his Page to call on the Princess to come to the chamber and bid the Prince to sit.

A few minutes later the Princess entered with a tray of scones and tea cups.  The Prince looked crestfallen.  Her appearance was quite ordinary, nothing like the rumours of her beauty at all.  Her eyes were like anyone’s eyes, her nose was the size of anyone’s nose, and her lips were no different from anyone else.

The Princess went up to the Prince and shook his hand.  “I’m so pleased to meet you” she said.  She gazed into his face and asked “what can I do for you”?

The Prince backed away and mentioned all the rumours of her beauty and how he came to seek her hand in marriage, but finds her actual looks don’t measure up to the rumours, and in fact, he is quite disappointed.

“Well that’s okay” she said “because marrying you wasn’t in my life plan. Not because there is anything wrong with you, but simply I hadn’t met you before and didn’t even know you existed. But before you leave please do stay and have a nice up of tea and fresh baked scones with clotted cream and jam – these will pick you up, no end.”

At this the King said “My dear boy please do stay longer and rest for a night before you take your journey back – I couldn’t bear to send you out again without some sustenance.”

It was this gesture that brought the Prince to his senses. How rude he had been to the Princess and how he had insulted the King. And then he looked down at his costume and realized what a mess he looked and how could anyone think he would be suitable for a princess. Humbly the Prince apologized.

The King replied that no offence was taken – he and his daughter were quite moved by his determination.

Over tea, the Prince asked the King why he called his daughter such an unusual name. The King said she was named Essie – short for Self Esteem – because it was their greatest wish that she learn what Self Esteem is, and what it isn’t.

“Yes” said the Princess.  “I have learned that self esteem is not what others think of you, and it is not about superiority or how many friends you have. Self esteem comes from being honest with yourself, and how you treat others.”  She paused and added “yes that’s it really – how you treat others is a mirror into how you feel about yourself.”

“Oh!” said the Prince.  Although he didn’t really understand it fully, he was too tired and thirsty to ask any more questions, and the scones really were delicious.