A Happy Accident
Oystercatchers aren’t as smart as previously observed in this blog.
I once mentioned how I followed a small group of them as they fed close to Campbeltown sea front. For a couple of times they kept flying away in the direction I was walking. And then one of them “realised” that flying behind me would stop this happening, as I would now be walking away from them.
I now think that this was A Happy Accident.
Yesterday I was walking along a long beach and those particular Oystercatchers repeatedly had to move as I approached. One, hilariously, couldn’t be bothered to fly very often, and simply ran very fast. This carried on down the whole length of the beach.
It would be nice to think that our learning, the smart apes that we are, is a lot more in control than that of the Oystercatchers. But if I look at my own learning experience, a lot of the most important things I’ve picked up about life and living, have all been more like happy accidents, rather than the result of my great insights or mental endeavours.
In fact I’m starting to be done with the idea that I’ve earned any of my alleged achievements at all. Mostly, if not completely, it just happens.
There’s a freedom in that. And a responsibility to show compassion to myself and others for the very same reasons. Especially when we fail to achieve. For the very same reasons.