Bullock’s Oriole : The Infinite End

This is a Bullock’s Oriole. It is dazzlingly beautiful, particularly in the rising sunlight. They’re not resident here, and I’d never seen one before. I spent quite a bit of time working to get this photograph, quite distinct from my typical “interrupted walk” during which I’m confident “there’s always another bird.” I was on a trip, and I knew I’d be at this park only twice. Being very conscious of my limited time remaining, I focused in on this particular offering. It wasn’t quite the pressure of now-or-never, but it was discernibly different than my normal open-ended meanderings. Better or worse, I can’t say for certain.

Jewish tradition is very explicit that life is limited, and Torah teaches the seeming paradox of mortality. We are given our time on the stage - and we are aware there is an exit, even if it comes after the full, long 120 years entrusted to Moses. By Parshah Pinchas, everyone Moses knew from Sinai (less Joshua and Caleb) was dead, and he was told his own end was approaching. We are instructed to live lives of practicing mitzvot that transcend our finite duration, and our memories and our names are kept alive by our descendants. Our own good deeds are how Judaism reconciles the eternal and the ephemeral.

I met a man that dawn on a real-deal motorcycle journey: top-end BMW touring bike, expedition panniers, and both he and the bike were high-milers. He has terminal cancer, and rather than dying in the hospital, he’s riding the Continental Divide up from Mexico to where he’ll finish by skinny-dipping in the Arctic Ocean. He loved my wish that he’d go out eaten by an orca! His journey is intended to transcend his end. This drash on the Oriole, this enduring offering growing out of my finite visit to the park, is equally intended as a surviving gift for long after I’m gone.