Scarlet Tanager

We had a couple of camps in Tennessee (2018) where Summer Tanagers were regular visitors, chirping away in the woods even if we couldn’t see them. One day I was sitting outside, drinking coffee and trying to work, but really watching birds a bit more than working. I saw a red blur come streaking into a tree about 30 meters in front of me. I’d been watching the Summer Tanagers for days, I almost didn’t grab my binoculars to look, but I’m a birder, no bird is ever too boring at least look and confirm your suspicions, so I did.

And you know what? It was a Summer Tanager with black wings. Wait, that’s not right. Not a Summer Tanager. A Scarlet Tanager, probably the most singularly striking bird I’ve ever seen.

Not only did I get a new bird, it was a good reminder from nature — never assume, never make the mistake of thinking the world is what you think it is. It is, independent of you, though you are part of it. Pay attention and it will show itself.

To paraphrase Jean-Paul Sartre (my rough understanding anyway), when we look around we see a world full of things that simply are what they are — the Scarlet Tanager is a Scarlet Tanager. The cup is a cup as it were. We can reflect on these things and come up with other explanations — e.g. a bird is a collection of complicated patterns of atoms whirling around or what have you — but that’s our thoughts about the world, not the world as it is. And you have to remember that distinction or you get in all kinds of trouble.