The geese are honking their way through another autumn in droves. A whole swack of them flew right over me while I was walking the other night and, even though none of them uttered a sound, there was still such huge volume with their wings flapping and the air stirring around them in their perfect V formation. There is such strength when you witness them all together like that, seeing the spectacular migration of such huge numbers.
But it’s their great big bellow that gives them such notoriety – well, that and all the poo. But the honking of geese trumpets the change of season like nothing else. Strange that their call sounds so mournful in the autumn and so joyful in the spring, when it’s exactly the same sound.
And what happens in between the two seasons - to them, but also to us. They have such a long way to go, as do we. They follow ancient memories in order to survive, ditto. The healthiest of them adapt to a changing world so that they can continue moving forward together in the most successful way. Some of us try to do that - others don’t even recognize there can be a new path that opens up if we relax our view of how things should be. They know their survival depends on their strength of community and when the goose leading the V formation gets tired another one takes their place so they can keep moving steadily forward together. I guess we kind of do that, unless the going gets tough and someone just takes off to go it on their own. Some of them leave heaps of crap in their wake and that’s the same with us, as is a similar feeling of wanting to flee winter that we both have. Geese mate for life and they return to the same spot every year, while we often stray and then get lost trying to find our way home. When a goose gets injured or sick, two other geese will fall out of formation to stay with the goose and until it is able to fly again. Nah, we sort of fail at supporting the weaker ones.
Okay, hold on a minute, I’m starting to think that what geese do is pretty hard for us mere mortals to achieve. They take turns in the leadership role, they slow down for their weakest members, they are unwavering in their support. And all this wonderful interaction comes naturally to them? I think, despite several similarities, us unwinged creatures could clip a page out of their playbook.
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