I'm guilty of this on many counts, but right now (actually for over 24 hours now) a red bird has been trying to get in my bedroom window. He keeps banging his head on the glass. He regroups on the tree branch not a yard away, shakes his head a bit, then charges back to the window pane. There must be some terrific homing instinct that drives him.
So, I took off the screen and opened the window full. What do you suppose happened then?
I think I"ll leave you hanging a little.
What is it that makes us, humans who are not so driven by instinct, do this same thing? Why do we repeatedly do something we know will not work? I suppose sometimes it might be sheer force of will, that drive that makes us great beings. We just know that one more chip at the stone, one more attempt--and we will break through! That's noble. That's determination.
I think, however, that more often we try and try again because we do not see the alternatives. We just know that this way is The Way, so it's the only one we put any effort or thought into. Other times we might stick with what we've always done (even if it failed) because we are not comfortable with the trying. We don't want to do something new and different because that is (on top of everything else) the Unknown.
In my case, finish carpentry is a weakness. I usually just stick with pirate ship club house carpentry. Whenever I have done something inside the house, it's been mediocre, like that I put sheetrock in my closet but never did mud and tape it. Or that I did mud and tape the laundry room but never sanded it out and painted it. Or the shelves I made of MDF but never painted or trimmed...the list goes on. I just take it so far, typically to the point that it functions, and quit, saying to my self that this is all I can do. (In my case I know very well the initial point of failure for me, back in middle school shop where an overzealous shop teacher failed me repeatedly on a little jewelry box project, but that's another story.) So, in this carpentry instance, it's pure/simple fear of failure that keeps me in my rut.
BUT NO MORE. We have a contractor who respects homeowner sweat equity. He's willing to coach me on laying the wood floor and finishing the stain on the woodwork, so I'm going to take him up on it. The way I see it, I'll be learning all this carpentry stuff while also getting my home made-over. A double win!!
Back to the bird.
If you guessed the bird would then shrug his wings and take off, you'd be wrong. He's kept at it for at least another 30 minutes now.
The window bears some explanation. It's a pair of double hung windows. He's beating against the top glass of only one of the four choices. The lower 1/4 is the one that is wide open, but he never attempts it. Oh the headache he must have, for yes, he continues his same futile practice.
I'm starting to think even instinct would guide the bird to try the open window. Maybe he's just insane.
1 comment:
Insanity. Fun fact, officially, it's not used in mental health. It's a legal term, used for all the reasons we've seen on the movies. I've also loved it's use in the positive from the recent generation, usually referring to something extraordinary. From a psychotherapy perspective, doing the same thing over and over again, being stuck, can be a prime opportunity to wake up. I think, right on, on terms of our resilient human nature, banging away at that window. This can also be a time to wake up to what's holding us back. Fear of wood working, being damn sure that windows don't exist, or, being stuck in a bad relationship, the same dead in job, and on and on...One thing to note is that 'insanity' typically defines a rare manifestation of the human mind. All of this implies that it is quite common. :)
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