Birdlife

Some feathers are not merely totally useless for flying, they are
actually an impediment to it.

Purely decorative, their only purpose to attract a mate.

From a certain angle you can't even see the line between decoration
and practicality.

But unless you are watching for entertainment alone, you might need to
see beyond the feathers. It might help you to notice where the line
is, to think about what else is being hidden or misrepresented.
It might save your life.

At least the animal kingdom have to grow their feathers from their own
genetic code. There is an honesty there.

But humanity can buy ours. We can put our purchases from Versace and
D&G on credit cards to preen and prettify.

We can even dress character flaws. By dress, of course, I mean cover
up. Bird don't do that. Bees don't do that. But educated fleas do.
And so do educated fellas.
Scumbags can make a charity donation.
Billionaires can give half of it away and not suffer a jot. I thought
Bill Gates did that but he is still the world's richest man - how does
that work? Is he Richard Pryor in Brewster's Millions? Is he Gregory
Peck in the Million Dollar Note?
Is he delaying curing malaria too quickly in case he dips to Number 2
on the Forbes Rich List?


I don't mind a little honest vanity. It can be fun, and colourful. It
allows a little play which might alleviate the melancholy of the human
condition. It needn't be dishonest and you can do it to music.

But dressing up character hides a lot of lies. And they always surface
in the end. The cracks always show when the foundations are weak.
This is a dressing that comes in all shapes and sizes from tips picked
up at management seminars to bribing your way out of a corruption
charge or letting your wife collects your points or calling someone a
pleb and denying it or opening the Hillsborough gates and choosing to
lie to the people you serve.

These lines are important.
Look for them. But only if you don't already.
If you do and you have slipped up then stop. It doesn't come easily,
so stop looking for a while. You are not tuned in. You will probably
invent them when they are not there and that's worse than giving
someone the benefit of the doubt.

Me?

I'm all feathers.
Don't ask me to put up a shelf.