Long-billed Thrasher : A Love Song
This is a Long-billed Thrasher. They’re typically hard to spot, staying deep in the thickets of the South Texas Brush Country. But I was treated to a serenade during my recent trip. And it was inspired. Attracting a mate is always top of the list when someone asks why birds sing. With some birds, frankly I have to chuckle a bit; when a raven croaks, that’s really a song that only another raven could love…. Oh, but this thrasher! I try not to interpret a bird’s song with my human ears, but I can’t help but empathize with a lovestruck thrasher hearing this song. The song is sweet and gentle and forceful and imposing. Thrashers are known for their wide repertoire, and even I was transfixed listening to the full gamut of its expression.
The Song of Songs is one of the world’s most beautiful love poems. Whether appreciated on its face as an exchange between two lovers, or seen more deeply as the expression of love between God and the Jewish people, the poetic imagery and powerful tenderness of the words are unequaled in expressive beauty. Tradition teaches the Song was composed by King Solomon… the Wise. We naturally accept Solomon as the author of Proverbs, but the Song of Songs? How can the stately judge of seemingly impossible conundrums also be the author of the most sublime and erotic poetry? Actually, it makes perfect, consonant sense.
Wisdom and love both share the same two predicates: humility and listening. At some level it really is that simple. To be wise - as distinct from intelligent - means being humbly aware of the things you don’t know and being open to listening to others’ knowledge. To love, deeply, means being able to acknowledge humbly the value of your Other and to listen intently and comprehensively to what that person needs. Seen this way, wisdom and love are natural complements of one another. Like love, to appreciate a song fully, requires both our minds and our hearts. The Thrasher’s song and King Solomon’s Song of Songs both remind us of the power of humble listening and the beauty of wisdom and love.