Today a moorhen has moved into the garden and began eating the duck pellets. It's a beautiful bird and much more tame than I'm used to with wild birds. The ducks chase it away but the hens and bantams seem much more philosophical and accept its presence. I guess it comes from the nearby angling pool. I suppose the question is: "Is this wild bird a carrier of disease and how should we react to its presence?" DEFRA recommends keeping poultry in a covered place so that no wild birds come into contact with them. I can't do that practically. But having had this wonderful visitor today and watched it interact with the others I don't want to keep it out. Even if it brings disease it is worth it.
It seems to me that sometimes the risk of the outside is outweighed by the beauty of what is from elsewhere. I would be the poorer if this moorhen hadn't arrived. When bird flu comes it won't make any distinctions between my birds and wild birds. They will share the same experience and we will lose them all.
I think I'll research some attitudes to the Black Death in history when certain communities cut themselves off so as not to infect their neighbours. We always assume that 'we' are the pure ones and that 'others' will infect us. That wasn't the way of it for some farsighted people - nor is it the way of it for people living with HIV and AIDS.
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thoughts about poultry keeping in God's Kingdom
thoughts about poultry keeping in God's Kingdom
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About Me
- hencity
- feminist, socialist (am I the only one left??), Christian (but more at home outside the church building),
Books being contemplated
- Walter Brueggemann "The Word That Redescribes the World" - brilliant and challenging
- Josef Pieper "Leisure: The Basis of Culture"
- Goscinny & Uderzo "Asterix in Britain" - perfect
- David Mitchell "Cloud Atlas" - excellent read!
- Paulo Coelho "The Devil and Miss Prym" - this was very disappointing
- Byron Rogers "The Bank Manager and the Holy Grail" - lovely writing
- Margaret Guenther "Holy Listening" - this has been really useful to rethink what I do
- Timothy Radcliffe "What is the Point of Being a Christian?" - what a wonderful book!
1 comment:
Thinking about this in terms of congregations (well, I would, wouldn’t I?!)…having just come in from a meeting with one of the parishes we are supposed to “cluster” with. Our lot are fine with this as long as they are numerically stronger; see the whole operation as one of benevolent imperialism, I think, and would definitely side with the ducks, in deep suspicion of people NOT like us appearing on the scene. “Catholic” means not so much all-embracing as a bid for church domination…,-because we as ducks, know how to be church, but they, being moorhens, don’t…
The other thing is, of course, how throughout history groups have hived off from mainstream church in search of a purer expression of the Kingdom…one of the most distressing legacies of the Reformation, to my mind.
So glad you have a bit of diversity on your doorstep to make us think!
And it's very handsome too, of course :-)
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