Red-naped Sapsucker : Beauty in Twists and Turns

This is a Red-naped Sapsucker. I was delighted by my good fortune on this unaccustomed trail. The morning light beautifully illuminated a stand of pine trees where this youngster was hunting up breakfast. The trail’s promise was its twists and turns. The light was of course constant in the east, and for every “disappointment” of a back-lit scene, there was another perfect opportunity around the bend. As an early-morning bird photographer, you’re always aiming to the west with the rising sun at your back. But the path itself snakes about, and it’s those new directions that align the light. The constraints are also the opportunities.

Judaism is famous - maybe notorious - for its adherents’ ability to generate opinions. There is the old joke about the two Jews and their three opinions. Perhaps this comes from our Talmudic tradition of learning through respectful argument. Study partners force each other, with respect and love, to defend their positions and strengthen their own understanding. Comprehensive learning comes by confronting challenges and being aware of both the strengths and weaknesses of an idea. And then, of course, we take the other side! “Education” that entails nothing more than uncritically parroting one stance may recruit advocates, but it certainly isn’t teaching.

Too often today, we walk down linear trails. The light fixed in its place means some of us look exclusively to the left and others right, but each of us then misses a twisting trail’s opportunity to see what’s illuminated on the other side. Are there areas of shadow we can explore? What about highlights and sparkles that draw our attention? Lost in silhouette, does our fixed perspective mean we forfeit the potential of something beautiful? To see both sides, of a trail or an argument, immeasurably increases our merit. Talmudic study demonstrates this truth, as does the illuminated beauty of the Sapsucker.