| Aziza was given a clean bill of health at a veterinarian re-check yesterday. She's happy as a clam, although right now, I don't know if she's beginning to moult, or if she's started to pick her feathers out. I certainly hope it's not the latter, as African Greys can look uglier than McGee did when he had his feather-plucking problem. Nonetheless, I will love Aziza forever and ever, regardless what happens. Having a pet means loyalty and committment to them, no matter what goes on. Who knows, however? She might not develop the problem. She loves coming out of her cage, and she cleverly resists going back into her cage, dodging, stalling, preening and running around her cagetop when the time comes to put her back in the cage, whether it be her bedtime, when I need to leave the house for whatever reasons, or when I have other stuff to do. Like a mischievous, naughty child, she can be funny as hell, but she also needs to be shown who's boss from time to time. The various ruses, such as luring her back in with a toy or a food treat are ruses that Aziza is thoroughly familiar with, and which she knows how to artfully dodge. Allowing her to mount her favorite roost on her cage play-top, slowly lowering her down, getting her to step onto my finger, and then lowering her to the bottom of her cage that way generally works, but not always. She's forever testing me, and she will continue to do so. But...oh the love and the fun! She's smart and sleek and loveable, and something tells me that she'll be talking at some point in time, given the fact that she's been doing a good deal of laughing and whistling. African Greys, like all birds and other animals, and people, are social animals.
Last evening, after learning through an email from management that there was a rat loose on the 4th floor of our building (which I reside on), I quickly began vacuuming the whole house, and I laundered Aziza's cage cover, her towels, and the cover for her carrier. At first, I thought that the rat must've come into the building as a result of somebody's having been dumb enough to keep the front door of the building open, but I later learned that the rat had swum and climbed up through the sewer line, up through someone's toilet, defecated on their toilet seat, and then ran around that person's 4th-floor loft for a bit. A little close for comfort, especially when having a bird or any other pet around the house. Worried that the rat might go after and possibly kill, maim or (gasp..heaven forbid) eat Aziza alive, I frantically vacuumed the whole house, including around Aziza's cage, laundered Aziza's cage cover, as well as her towels and the cover for her carrier, and then put three of my heaviest books over the toilet lid, in the hopes of preventing any interested rat(s) from coming through. Not that the rat could get into Aziza's cage, but, since Aziza does lots of climbing around in her cage, as African Greys in the wild are prone to do, the rat could reach in with a claw or whatever and possibly kill or maim Aziza for life, or get into the food. Not something I'd want!
Messages of songs don't always come clear to me right away, and they've sometimes taken years to do so, either through figuring it out, or doing research on a particular song or songs. It wasn't until quite recently that I became aware of the messages of songs like "Poor Moon" by the Canned Heat, "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell, and "Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkle, all of which conveyed messages about the destruction of our environment, taking of people's land by eminent domain, and opposition to never-ending war that is conveyed by Sounds of Silence, although it could be a message about the silence about what's going on generally, and the persistant refusal to speak out.
With some songs, such as "Give a Damn" by the now-defunct group Spanky and Our Gang", the message was clear to me right away; giving a damn about our fellow man. Here is a link to a youtube video to that song that I found, which is, imho, quite powerful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
If you can open the link and view the video, and listen to the song, you'll find that it's also quite relevant, even for today.
Even certain movies convey a message of some sort or other. Unlike The Outsiders, or, to a certain extent, Rebel Without a Cause, which seem to sort of glorify gang violence, West Side Story tends to point out the senselessness of gang violence, as well as the destructive consequences of hatred, racism and poverty. Unfortunately, the message that West Side Story conveys all too often goes unheeded here in the USA and throughout the world, generally. I've begun to think more and more that, while racism and poverty may never end, people might eventually start talking more to each other, but who knows if or when that will ever even happen? Our society, and the world, in general, are far too unpredictable for that, particularly nowadays. Everything raises a question: Could this really be the final throes of desperation before automation sets in? Who knows?
I must admit that I probably don't do enough cross-examining of myself for many, if not most people's liking, but I guess there's only so far one can go. One might say that, by continuing to hold onto things such as reading True Crime books, and my intense love for West Side Story, and my wanting to drive every year to the midwest instead of flying or whatever, or, occasionally making road trips to neighboring states to see the film West Side Story, never hitching up with anybody, and not sticking my neck out to risk getting arrested or jailed for a cause, or the fact that I consider supplanting oneself in front of a huge, heavy 60-100 ton piece of moving metal machinery, such as a train or a bulldozer to prove my point and risking limb and/or life not such a smart idea might very well be, to many other people, a sign of not caring what goes on around oneself, or the fact that I persist and insist on having my very-curly hair long because I like it, as a refusal to adjust to other people's liking, which is considered abnormal, all of this is who and what I am.
As a woman who grew up in the 1950's and 1960's, I'm also aware of the fact that there were many things wrong with those times that an awful lot of people who grew up during those times are unwilling to face. Yet, at the same time, I've been discovering more and more that the only way to survive is to stand by what I believe in, regardless of whether I'm a lone voice in the wilderness or not. The more I think of it, the more I decide that deciding to go solo throughout my life and not have roommates or even a partner was probably best for me. Fortunately, I have a cadre of family and friends who love and accept me for who and what I am, despite the fact that we may not always agree on things. |
