Grandmamma’s advice

When I was a little boy, I had a tendency to be a bit mischievous.  As hard to believe as it is, I seemed to have a knack for getting into some type of predicament. My Grandmother Russell used to say l didn’t have the sense God gave a goose.  Being the smart little lad I was at the time, I wondered why anyone would even want to be as smart as a goose.  Since then my grandmamma has passed on and I’ve grown a little older, but I’m not sure sometimes how far I’ve made it out of the mischievous state.  I did, however, do my research on this goose thing.

For instance, nearly all of us have observed geese flying south for the winter.  When they do, they fly in, a “V” formation. Did you know that flying in a “V” formation gives the whole flock a 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own. What can we learn from that? People who share a common direction and a sense of community can get where they want to go quicker and easier if they travel on the thrust of one another.  Another interesting thing about a goose is when the lead goose gets tired, she rotates back in the wing and another goose flies point.  It pays to take turns doing hard jobs … with people, or geese flying south for the winter.  I guess the last interesting thing I found out about a goose is when a goose gets sick, or is wounded by gunshot and falls out, two geese fall out of formation and follow down to protect it. They stay with it until it is either able to fly or is dead, then they launch on their own to catch up with the group.  Wouldn’t it be neat if people stood by each other like that.

Yesterday, I heard the geese high overhead. I thought about what I’d read and the number of times I heard grandmamma compare me that goose. I’m not sure how much Grandmother Russell knew about birds, but she sure knew a lot about people. More importantly, she knew a lot about mischievous little boys who didn’t have the sense of a goose.

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