Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay : New and Better?

This is a Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay. It’s not a Mexican Jay. The latter is what I wanted it to be. I was on an expedition to the deserts of West Texas. I’d driven hours and hours. I had invested a decent bit of cash. And I had internalized expectations about seeing a whole variety of new birds, birds which would justify all this effort I was making. There is a subtle distinction between appreciating something on its own merits and appreciating something because it is in some way different from what you already know. My focus and desire was on seeing the Mexican Jay, perhaps not so much because it is inherently somehow “better” but simply because it was “new.”

King David was a phenomenally accomplished ruler. He slew the enemy champion. He united the disparate factions of his own people. Through battle, marriage, and cunning politics, he consolidated a large and powerful kingdom. He positioned his son to inherit his throne. And even to this day, people sit in the global capital he established, the eternal City of David, and pray the Psalms he wrote as offerings to HaShem. It would be difficult to name a more accomplished sovereign. And yet. David was denied the one thing he perhaps wanted above all else, the honor of building the Holy Temple.

To come up short is challenging. For “universally” accomplished people, one missing feat contrasts even more starkly. Human psychology, even - especially! - for successful people, focuses our attention on what we have yet to accomplish rather than what we’ve done. Deep faith has two relevant dimensions here: inspiration and consolation. Faith can give us both the confidence to achieve - to slay the giant - and to accept - to not build the Temple. David was a man imbued with deep faith. So am I. As I came to appreciate this Scrub Jay for its own beauty and merit, rather than wanting it to be something different than it was, I wonder if King David reflected the same way on his own life.