Jays and Sparrows

January 17, 2010 Daily Quotation:
"The moment a little boy is concerned with which is a jay and which is a sparrow, he can no longer see the birds or hear them sing." - Eric Berne

This idea says so much.  We take it for granted that as we get older we identify and accept the world around us in all its distinct differences. As a child though, a bird is a bird.  He doesn't know that the blue jay is bossy and mean, and will scare off other birds for his own greed.  The sparrow, though, is meek, humble, and full of the song of happiness. She is vulnerable and scares off easily, and suffers greatly at a jay's territorial greed.  But in spite of her own suffering, she has the sweetest song.  So when a child no longer looks at either bird and simply calls it a bird, when that child knows the jay is mean and the sparrow is kind, that child also knows both the joys and the sorrows of the world.  His innocence is leaving.

Many poets write about this, most notably William Blake with his Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.  A long-time poet friend brings up the theme in several of his poems.  This theme from childhood innocence to aged experience  I think is also why I like Robert Penn Warren's poetry.  Much of the landscape I can relate to, but also the movement of time and memory, the narrator grown up and has learned what cannot be and must be, even when he dreamed of what could be. There is always reflection on how growing out of innocence makes one pine for it again.

The quotation is good as a writing prompt, either for its bird references, the scene of a boy looking at two different birds, or whatever else the quote might call up within you.  Write.