QUOTE : I am 52 years old, and have spent<br />truly the better part<br />of my life out-of-doors<br />but yesterday I heard a new sound above my head<br />a rustling, ruffling quietness in the spring air<br /><br />and when I turned my face upward<br />I saw a flock of blackbirds<br />rounding a curve I didn't know was there<br />and the sound was simply all those wings<br />just feathers against air, against gravity<br />and such a beautiful winning<br />the whole flock taking a long, wide turn<br />as if of one body and one mind.<br /><br />How do they do that?<br /><br />Oh if we lived only in human society<br />with its cruelty and fear<br />its apathy and exhaustion<br />what a puny existence that would be<br /><br />but instead we live and move and have our being<br />here, in this curving and soaring world<br />so that when, every now and then, mercy and tenderness triumph in our lives<br />and when, even more rarely, we manage to unite and move together<br />toward a common good,<br /><br />and can think to ourselves:<br /><br />ah yes, this is how it's meant to be.