Grandson Flips Me The Bird

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Added: Tue. Jun 10, 2008 5:15pm
Posted in: Intergenerational

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Father's Day is on a lot of people's minds, and I just wanted to point out something that not a lot of people think about.

See, to someone my age, and I'm 81, the best thing about Father's Day is that it led the way for me to become a grandfather. It truly is the best.

Don't get me wrong, my kids are great. But there's something special and unique about the relationship between a person near the end of life and someone just beginning theirs. I can illustrate this point with something that happened just this weekend.

My grandson and I were working in the yard when he started shouting to me. He was bent over at the waist, staring at the ground. He was waiving me over without taking his eyes off of whatever he was looking at.

I started over to him as quickly as I could and he quickly gestured to me to slow down and approach quietly. He had found a baby bluejay on the ground. The bird was just sitting still, and I knew that wasn't a good sign.

We looked at each other wondering what to do. Together, we decided to try to shoo it a bit to see what it would do. He began to hop away, then he'd flap his wings pretty hard, only to barely lift off the ground and drop back down after a couple of feet. He was too young to fly. But the way he beat his wings at least we figured they probably weren't broken. So again, we looked at each other and wondered what to do.

We looked around to see if there were any parents keeping an eye on the little guy. Nothing. But there were several neighborhood cats in the area, and we knew if we left him alone he'd be an ex-bird before he knew what hit him. So, together we bent over, and he gently picked the little fella up. The bird put up very little resistance, which made us believe he'd probably been on his own for a while and used up his strength.

I got my car keys and we headed over to see the Bird Lady. She a songbird rehabber who lives only a few miles away. It seems my grandson and I pay her several visits every year. She gave the bird a good going over. She said he was bruised and dehydrated but she thought she could nurse him back to health and hoped he could be released into the wild in a week or so.

So now for why I told you all this.

I don't think the events would have played out the same way if you substituted his dad for me. Not that his dad doesn't care, but he's always working on something, always busy. There's no way he could have taken the time to drive a bird to a rehabber.

Not only do I have the time to do it, I'm just as fascinated with nature as my grandson is!

When you get to be my age you start to notice things like how blue the sky is, how nice the sun feels on my face and how special it feels to hold a baby bird in your hands.

Remember how curious you were about everything when you were a kid? When you grow up it goes away. For me it was gone about 50 years. But now it's back. I'll watch a butterfly zip across the yard as long as I can. I'll stare at vegetables growing in the garden. I'll think about how good it feels to be outside in the yard.

I don't know how many good days I have left so I try to get the most out of every day I can. I think my grandson inherently understands that.

Even though we're headed in different directions we think the same way. My grandson and I... We just seem to click. How great is that?