I keep files and files of weathered articles and clippings and letters that have inspired me through the years. There’s even more inspiring files kept in my computer. This is one that I recently re-discovered as I was sorting all my boxes of stuff from one box into another while preparing for a major move (I simply cannot throw STUFF AWAY! Hellllpppp meeee!) But this is one I’m glad I saved. It’s a copy from a long ago Ann Landers column in the paper. A reader had asked her to reprint it from something called the “Dick E. Bird News.” I loved it then and I love it even more now as it offers yet another example of the power and grace of Nature Teachers.
What We Can Learn from Geese
Fact No. 1: As each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift draft for the bird following. By flying in a “V” formation, the whole flock adds a greater flying range than if one bird flew alone.
Lesson No. 1: People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they’re going quicker and more easily because they are traveling on the strength of one another.
Fact No. 2: Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to fly alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front.
Lesson No. 2: If we have as much sense as geese, we will stay in formation and be willing to accept help when we need it and give help when it is needed.
Fact No. 3: When the lead goose gets tired, it rotates back into the formation, and another goose flies in the point position.
Lesson No. 3: Geese instinctively share the task of leadership and do not resent the leader.
Fact No. 4: The geese in formation honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
Lesson No. 4: We need to make sure our honking from behind is encouraging and not something else.
Lesson No. 5: When a goose gets sick, is wounded or is shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to earth to help and protect it. They stay with their disabled companion until it is able to fly again or dies. They then launch out on their own or with another formation or catch up with the flock.
Lesson No. 5: If we have as much sense as geese, we, too, will stand by one another in difficult times and help the one who has dropped out regain his place in the formation.
My husband, Pete and I, have always had a special affinity for geese—the wondrous birds who mate for life. Their honking above our heads as they fly so magnificently across the sky always moves us; we see them as a “sign” that we’re heading in the right direction, that life is good. After reading how geese live their lives with such equanimity and caring for each other, I love them even more.
