September 10, 2023

Exodus 12:1-14
Matthew 18:15-20

We’re back to flight school today. Nene flight school.

The first part of the day had been occupied with eating lessons, because nene believe very strongly in the virtue of a good breakfast. And lunch. And mid-afternoon snack. And don’t get me started on dinner, because a nene is pretty much always ready to start on dinner.

Now, however, the young goslings were ready for some flying time. They were very young, and they hadn’t been going to school very long. In fact, they were still on the first lesson, which is:

Taking off.

That’s kind of an issue for a nene. It’s a good-sized bird, and relative to some similar looking geese, it’s got smaller wings. A nene will fly better than you or I, but there’s a lot to know about getting started.

A nene has to get the hops right, and the wing downbeats right, and the leap and the downbeats timed right, and most important of all: face into the wind.

Face into the wind.

One of the young nene was having a lot of trouble facing into the wind.

Do you have friends who are distracted easily? Any little noise or movement draws their eye? Well, he was distracted by everything. A stray ‘ohelo berry. An unfamiliar noise. A familiar noise. A puff of wind. A stillness of wind. A bug. A waving blade of grass.

So when the teacher lined everyone up, had them face into the wind, led them through a couple of practice hops and a couple of practice wingbeats, she also turned into the wind with them and called out, “Ready?”

There was a chorus of “Ready”s behind her, except for one voice that said, “For what?”

He’d been distracted by a sunbeam on some lava glass.

She got him turned in the right direction, led the practice hops and the wingbeats, and called out, “Ready?”

She got the expected reply. Several nene “Ready”s and one nene “Oops.”

She dismissed the rest of the class back to eating lessons, but asked the ever-distracted-one to stay. “I know you’re easily distracted,” she told him, “but the problem is, you have to get everything ready before you take off.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. “Can we try it?”

“Yes,” she said, “we can try it.”

They tried it. It was a disaster. When he didn’t focus, he didn’t time his hops and his wingbeats, and he fell forward. When he forgot to hop at all, he stayed firmly on the ground. When he didn’t face into the wind and stay that way, he’d tip himself right over.

“How about we try it with me paying attention?” he asked.

A few minutes later his classmates looked up from their mid morning snack to see their teacher and their friend flying gently through sky above them. They cheered.

He paid a lot of attention when it came time for landing.

by Eric Anderson

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I write these stories first (it’s what you’ve just read) but tell them from memory. Memory and creative inspiration, that is.

Photo of two nene by Eric Anderson.