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Crazy as a Loon?
Sep. 10th, 2023 09:00 pmNot really -- but they live mostly always unaccompanied and travel in water nearly submerged to appear as simply a neck and long beak tilting upward out of the water with assurance and pride.
When I saw her on the lake tonight, crazy? No, perhaps lonely but never crazy. She is my favorite on the water.
* * *
Sometimes when I am grocery shopping, I will see an older person shuffling around in the store with maybe only one or two items in a very large shopping cart. Usually it is something that I wouldn't consider to be a staple item - like a package of dry beans or a package of brown shoelaces. Often they seem so lonely and I wonder if they are just shopping to fight off the feelings found in the lack of companionship. It seems this happens too often.
When I used to visit my father in the VA hospital during the last year of his life, I would feel so guilty about it. I'd walk into his room and he would be strapped in a geriatric chair - tracing the outline of his food tray with his finger - over and over again. Here was this man, so broken by strokes and loneliness - and here I was visiting for a short while and then leaving freely to go home. It never felt right and I felt weak because of it.
When I saw her on the lake tonight, crazy? No, perhaps lonely but never crazy. She is my favorite on the water.
* * *
Sometimes when I am grocery shopping, I will see an older person shuffling around in the store with maybe only one or two items in a very large shopping cart. Usually it is something that I wouldn't consider to be a staple item - like a package of dry beans or a package of brown shoelaces. Often they seem so lonely and I wonder if they are just shopping to fight off the feelings found in the lack of companionship. It seems this happens too often.
When I used to visit my father in the VA hospital during the last year of his life, I would feel so guilty about it. I'd walk into his room and he would be strapped in a geriatric chair - tracing the outline of his food tray with his finger - over and over again. Here was this man, so broken by strokes and loneliness - and here I was visiting for a short while and then leaving freely to go home. It never felt right and I felt weak because of it.
