[obol] Anthropomorphizing Beauty

[Josh Ellis]

I find it hilarious that there is always a raucous alarm whenever
someone is viewed as anthropomorphizing.  The definition of the word
presupposes a clear, well-defined, commonly understood boundary between
the life of humans and that of other animals.  I think, though, that the
pen delineating that line ran out of ink a long time ago.  Study after
study continuously blurs it.  Anyone who has done wildlife rehab or
banding work can attest to the widely varying personalities,
temperaments, and dare I say emotional fluctuations (hormonal or
otherwise, just like us) present in animals.

To that end, I deeply appreciate Khanh's reply: "I am trying to capture
an image to get people to come out and look at the beautiful bird".
Absolutely, and thanks for putting in the emotion and dedication day in
and day out to do so!  I know that for me personally and most other
people for which birding is a passive hobby that latin names and volume
upon volume of physical minutiae and documentary photos can be utterly
and entirely demotivating.  Discussions on here regarding Gull ID are a
perfect example.  Largely because of those discussions I have never
gotten myself into that mess.
However, I enjoy them and I welcome them and I want to see them keep
flowing on OBOL.  They are indicative of an extreme level of passion
which I respect even if I personally don't always find them
intellectually interesting.  It is simply one manner in which people
express their admiration.  Others do so with photography, others with
(often anthropomorphic) written word, and some folks do so simply by
going out of their way to hang bird feeders outside their kitchen
window.  All convey at least a little truth and a whole lot of beauty.

As with everything in life a diversity of approaches involving the
simultaneous interplay of the intellects and emotions creates the most
appealing and realistic portrait, whether it be of birds or people.  To
presuppose that any one approach is flawed first and foremost assumes
that it lacks truth (good luck proving that the Indigo Bunting wasn't
perky and cheerful) and also assumes that it lacks purpose (which is
clearly irrelevant to you, ipso facto, because it's not your chosen
approach).  In short, the presupposition is absurd.  All that we can
rely on at that point to denigrate an approach is objective evidence for
harm towards the animals in question, whether they be people or birds,
and I'd be incredibly interested to hear of any examples where poetic
anthropomorphic language so much as ruffled a feather.  To be fair there
are plenty of examples of harm in the scientific realm--all that
objective data comes at a cost, just keep that in mind.

This weekend as I enjoy a trip to the Rogue River I'm going to bring my
binoculars, and as I view all the wonderful individual birds I meet I
will surely appreciate the fact that as I view them they view me and we
are both altered because of that.  Interconnection is life.  Inevitably
as I'm standing along the river staring up at the sky one of the
hardcore jet boat racers at the lodge will ask me what I'm doing, and
this will almost certainly lead to a discussion about duck hunting.
They, too, will anthropomorphize the birds they love, and because of
that commonality we will engage in a wonderful conversation where we
both deepen our appreciation of birds by hearing someone else's approach
to admiring their beauty.  Of course, I always have the option of making
a snide comment about hunting instead...

Enjoy your weekend and your birds, however you see fit!

~Josh
-----------
Josh Ellis
Product Engineer
Electrical Geodesics, Inc.
2979 Chad Dr. 
Eugene, OR 97408
541-334-0384
jellis at egi.com


-----Original Message-----
Message: 5
Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2007 14:42:15 -0800
From: "Tom Crabtree" <tc at empnet.com>
Subject: Re: [obol] INDIGO BUNTING at Baskett S. NWR-YES!!
To: "'khanh tran'" <khanhbatran at hotmail.com>,
	<obol at lists.oregonstate.edu>
Message-ID: <010501c7b455$6a929680$4e01a8c0 at 013171>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

The Indigo Bunting is not "cheerful."  It isn't "perky."  It is a bird
that
is out of range and attempting in vain to attract a mate of its species.
"Desperate" would be a better description, but it is a bird, not a
human.

Sorry Alan, if I am usurping a curmudgeon role here.

Tom Crabtree