Six : Famous Mockingbird

Since yesterday was a summit day and the post was long with a lot to unpack, I thought today might be nice to go short and pithy before picking back up with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and the Metaphysics of Quality tomorrow. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from my favorite authors, from Helping Friendly Book 32.

The Famous Mockingbird with the Helping Friendly Book. Artist Brian Bojo

“Mockingbirds are the true artists of the bird kingdom. Which is to say, although they're born with a song of their own, an innate riff that happens to be one of the most versatile of all ornithological expressions, mocking birds aren't content to merely play the hand that is dealt them. Like all artists, they are out to rearrange reality. Innovative, willful, daring, not bound by the rules to which others may blindly adhere, the mockingbird collects snatches of birdsong from this tree and that field, appropriates them, places them in new and unexpected contexts, recreates the world from the world. For example, a mockingbird in South Carolina was heard to blend the songs of thirty-two different kinds of birds into a ten-minute performance, a virtuoso display that serve no practical purpose, falling, therefore, into the realm of pure art.” 


― Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All #hfb32