What would the 10 commandments of birding be ? Do we want/need any ? And if so, who's going to write them ? Do we need ten of them ? Vital issues ! Actually, I've no idea. Obviously the ones in the bible won't be any use, except in the vaguest sense. Committing adultery, for example, is usually enormously time-consuming and probably expensive, I wouldn't know, and that " not envying thy neighbour's wife" is a bit odd ...why would that god person design us so that we have all those sort of impulses and then not let us even think about them, let alone "do" them ... it seems mighty odd to me. And it's not really relevant to birding, except in the slangy sense. Then there's " Thou shalt not kill" .... that's not very well defined is it .... no treading on worms then, even if by accident. No defending yourself either ... as a guide, it's pretty useless really. Plus, you'd have to drive v. slowly to your next rarity in case you squodged a rabbit..... and not only that, after any car journey in decent weather your radiator will be plastered with squidged insects etc. What's that if not "killing" ? And most of the other ones aren't going to be of much help either. But ...assuming that some "commandments" would be a good idea for us birders, what sort of commandments would you want ? We don't want any "inventing" of sightings, or lying about our "lists", or misdirecting our rivals ( surely not !) or nicking telescopes, or slagging off those who aren't quite as clued-up as us, or buying exotic birds at cage-bird fairs and claiming them as genuine vagrants, no tampering with road signs, no painting over certain letters of towns like Scunthorpe to distract the driver, or sending birders you don't like up "disappearing" trees .... there's all sorts of things going on that we don't like.... but how could these be "commandmentised" into a useful set of guidelines .... ? I'll leave you to ponder over that lot then .... ... and as usual, all ideas would be welcome at [email protected] ..and once we've got those sorted, everything will go well ... "Tout va bien"
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
|