Monday the 25th I exit class having just heard Professor Sexson’s story involving his newspaper friend. The day is gorgeous and I think of how I can be outside to enjoy it. I make my way down to the duck pond, sit on the lone bench and absorb the sunlight.
The only object of entertainment I have on my person is my Ovid’s Metamorphoses. I have not been an honest student as I have not finished reading the stories. Having heard we would be going over Baucis and Philemon, I thought now is as good a time as any.
I hear someone say my name and I look up to an acquaintance and we ask the usual “how are you/work/life?” questions. As we talk a mother walks up with her toddler son and a loaf of bread. They begin to feed the ducks. If you haven’t fed the ducks I encourage you to witness the sheer chaos it causes in their duck community. My friend and I watch the ducks in their frenzy for food and eventually my friend has to leave. I open to the page and begin to read Baucis and Philemon.
“Half mere, half swamp, once pleasant countryside
But now a region of wild ducks and reeds.”
No way does a description like this come up while I sit at the duck pond. Who went back in time and told Ovid this is where I would read this story?
I continue to read the story and draw similarities to an old couple from my hometown that I have grown so well to know, that I now call them grandparents. Their home for the past 50 years has been known as the most welcoming home in town. Both earned citizen of the year in my home town this year. I picture this old couple dying peacefully at the same time much like Baucis and Philemon.
“The story I told you came to me
From a respectable old man who had no motive
In telling lies,…”
Can you read those lines and not think of professor Sexson? I mean it’s a TRUE story.
The mother calls out to the son, feeding the ducks, “Jason, time to go,” Does she know? Is she familiar of the Argonauts? Is that why he has that name? With no more food, the ducks resume their rested state as before.
I receive a phone call while sitting on the bench. I received a summer position that I had gone through a lengthy process for. I feel euphoric with hardwork and connectedness of the moment. I warn you that I am a Disney geek, and there is a story about Walt Disney’s favorite song, “Feed the Birds”, and at this moment in my life the story has never made more sense. It is a song by Walt’s dynamic duo, the Sherman Brothers.
The late Robert Sherman recalls:
“On Fridays, after work, [Walt Disney would] often invite us into his office and we’d talk about things that were going on at the Studio. After a while, he’d wander to the north window, look out into the distance and just say, ‘Play it.’ And Dick would wander over to the piano and play ‘Feed the Birds’ for him. One time just as Dick was almost finished, under his breath, I heard Walt say, ‘Yep. That’s what it’s all about.’
Thought Behind Action 