The Big and the Small

I have a bird feeder mounted on my back porch. It has attracted a big black bird with red and white on its wing, black birds with brown heads, little brown birds that are speckled white, a red bird with a bright orange beak, a big-eyed bird with scattered black spots, a smallish brown bird with a swatch of red above its tail, birds with dusty red heads that subtly color brown bodies, and dusky, crested, slightly blue birds. When I see four or five of them all discordantly different hopping nervously from perch to porch to perch nibbling quickly at my seed, I am amazed. I am amazed that all of these birds have names, common and scientific. I am amazed that I could go out and purchase a book for $14.99 called Birds of the South and find out what each name is. I am amazed that I could read detailed information about what each bird likes to eat, where they like to sleep, how many babies they have and how often, where they like to migrate, what their life span is, how their feather's are patterned, who they are most closely related to, anything and everything short of their political and religious affiliations.
It is tempting sometimes to want to be recognized for my individuality, to do something that everyone will see and connect just my name too. Then I think of something like this, this beautiful tower of information that has taken thousands of years to build with millions of distinct hands and minds, and I think it is good to be a part of an astoundingly productive and creative whole.