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I had lunch with the webmaster on the port dock. I wanted to go there, close to the sea, for my birthday.
This sparrow was without a paw and standing on this gate, it seemed so “not feeling good” as it were in a cage.
The very first picture taken to Java that came the day of my birthday but not for me… not completely at least.
Amazing coincidences…
and sometimes things just appears to be nice/funny, but I don’t know the reason 
Yesterday I opened a tumblr page.
I followed the example of a wonderful Grandma’s who runs querere-deum.
Why doing this? Well, I’m curious, I thought it was interesting, it’s fast in upload and apparently friends enjoy more fast/short post. Beside, seems like it can be pretty useful for several reason and actually it easily gives me the chance to do what I wanted to do with a “blog” a couple of years ago. I have to admit that for a second I thought about shutting down this site and just work on tumblr, but soon later I understood that:
a) The webmaster (bf) would shut me down . He is a lovely guy but he spent so much time, and still does, on improving the site… He just finished to do a great work (new layout), so he would be right in getting a little too angry.
b) 2 years ago isn’t now, I changed and therefore changed my intention and my style, so… it’s a pity to waste what I built with the webmaster’s help
c) With this web space I’m much more free to do whatever I want.
So here I am playing with both and today I post a Feynman’s quote:
You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird…
So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing — that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.
and this picture:
It’s one of my favorite quotation because one of my biggest problem with passing exams at university is remember the name of things… a lot of time, during a spoken test, I’ve been asked to talk about “principle x” and I couldn’t answer because I didn’t know “principle x” was called X… I just called it “the principle that says…”. It’s terrible and silly, I know, it shouldn’t happen but it does… at least this sentence makes me laugh about my deficit and making me feeling a little less stupid.
The same happens with flowers and animals, I’ve observed, photographed many animals and flowers without knowing them, I let their mere beauty hit me and then discover the name of that specific flower or animal, and in some special case I discovered also something about that flower or that animal.
I’ve learn a lot from little simple sparrows that use to come to my house since Winter 2008. I don’t know everything but by just observing them I’ve learn something about them and their habits and not only
Have you ever looked at a bird seeking for food or at a children playing alone?
Has ever happened that while you were looking at them, jumping all around, seeking for food or fun, there was someone talking about “important” facts?
Some days ago it happened to me.
I was having lunch, and as usually some sparrow came to eat their lunch too… that day, as always, TV was on.
A journalist was talking about economy, I actually understood nothing more than “it’s going bad”. It wasn’t a nice information, definitely!
The bird kept on eating and drinking water, looking at that threatening sunshade that waved close to the food plate. The little guy kept on waiting for the proper moment (when the sunshade is steady enough) to catch the food and go to peacefully eat it in the safer pine pot.
The bird surely couldn’t care about that information, how could it? How could a sparrow understand economy or anything else about the human world? Could it solve any of those problems? No.
At the same time nobody could care about that bird, if it was having enough food that day, if it was dying or not. Why should we?
I feel like that bird, not important or useful…
…but…
If sparrows have been created, and they have the instinct to look for food or to “pay attention” to threatening sunshades, all in order to survive and go ahead… there must be a reason.
Therefore, why should I give up? Why should I stop eating, drinking or just stop trying to do and get the best I can?
Important, strong or successful people rarely care about showing to others that being “important”, being “strong”, and being “successful” it is nice, it helps, but it isn’t what define the “worth” of a person.
Some, or most, of them forget that life is worth. That’s all they should remember.
They are the same people that lead this world, they set it up… making people, like me, feeling really uneasy with the idea to fail, to become “nothing”.
And I think God gets sad more or less in the same way for the dying sparrow, for the depressed man and for the one who is being mean or forgetful about important things… but he surely caress all of them, even when they just drink water…
That’s a reason that makes me hope to come back to take pictures: it makes me easier to see God caress.
Should I envy him/her?
I wish I could go to the sea everyday when it’s so hot outside!
But, I want to consider what’s good in my life … funny-sweet-nice sparrows’ shows can be one of the good ones, don’t you think so?!
…mumble…
2 consecutive shots about “someone drinking something”…
….I start thinking that my subconscious is thirsty…
…but, who cares? It is so nice to be watching at them eating, than “jumping” till the “dish of water” and drinking,
and then…
…well, I will show you tomorrow what they do after they drink
P.S.
No, water is not laced with alcohol! 
Good things happens, often… we just have to focus on them!
You may, eventually, take a picture of something of nice that you have the chance to see…
You can do it just for fun or for the personal pleasure to preserve the memory of such a cute thing…
Than can happen that a friend send you a message via cellphone saying: “Hey! I have just read about this photographic contest… why don’t you try?”
The pictures are already available, you have just to have them printed…why shouldn’t you try? It cost nothing.
And then can happens another pleasant thing, the woman in the shop where you go to have your pictures printed reminds of you because she liked the cat picture. And then, you just have to let your mind fly back to 10 months before, when that woman, about 10years older than you, asked you the permission to see the picture with the black cat…
And she asked you with such a sweet smile and a light in her eyes that are typical of those well-mannered children who ask for the permission of doing something (that, you know, it isn’t bad).
And you cannot stop thinking about the sentence: “[...] unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven”… and how it can comes true just looking at the Beauty of this world.
And few days later, happens another nice thing… your boyfriend spend a whole afternoon of his life to let you reach the place where you have to leave the pictures for the contest.
And few weeks later, while you are going to get furious because it’s not clear where you have to go to listen to a lecture, your cellphone rings, you don’t know who is calling but you answer… and someone tells you “Are you miss L.?”…and after you confirm your identity he keeps on saying: “I am the president of the E. cultural association, I am calling you to tell you won the first prize…”. At the end of the call you thanks, and then you spend the rest of the morning thinking:”What!? I won something? It’s incredible!”.
And it’s then that all your friends and relatives who knows about the news cannot stop smiling and enjoy the nice event with you!
And if with those money you can finish to pay your iMac to your parents (who paid in advance), if you can contribute to buy a new laptop to share with your boyfriend (laptop for which you were already saving money), if you can buy a little present to the friend who told you about the contest, and if you can give a little help to another one…who is, now, helping you even if he doesn’t know your plans… all with just those 500€…well, trust me, winning becomes just a background of a series of wonderful aspects of your life, as friendship and love. These are all “things” that you cannot put in just a picture with your camera, but that can make you go to sleep smiling.
And if you won the the same contest that one of your relatives read about, but didn’t want to tell you about it in order to avoid you waste your time with such an useless thing as photography… well, the thing feels a lot nicer! ;D
I love to talk about love and friendship, especially on Wednesday
It seems yesterday, and ages ago at the same time…
The 13th May 2008 your daddy (my cousin) sent me a message to tell us you were born!. In the message he wrote also your name, your weight, your length and, not written, the infinite joy of your parents.
I remember I was studying math when I received that message. I don’t know what you’ll study at university but, trust me, that the kind of math I was studying is really “annoying”… but this message, or better your birth news, made me smile. I started to jump all around the house telling the news to my parents and to my brother.
I wish I were there, I wish I had hugged you at least once this year… but we live pretty far away, and old people can be so strange and boring at time. They (well I should say “we”, even if I am not so old yet!) always say to be “too busy”, and they never find time to meet who they love.
That’s OK, internet, the good use of it, solved the problem. I keep in touch with your daddy who fills my mail with picture of the wonderful creature you are.
Your daddy is a man of few words but, trust me, from those is easy to understand how deeply he loves both you and your mother.
And I hope, my little cousin, you will always feel and understand how much your parents loves you.
I hope you will never lose someone that loves you… at least, not too early.
You will be sad in your life, people will make you sad. You’ll surely argue with your parents (I don’t know your mommy very well but, sorry, I’m sure that on this side of your family we are pretty stubborn and your daddy is one of the hardest heads ;D).
I hope you will never feel homeless, that you will never miss someone’s love… but it can be possible…if it happens, I hope you’ll always remember what your parents will surely teach you: There is always Someone, that One that sent you to us, the Father we all share… Who will always love you and every living creature on this Earth.
A Love in front of which everyone, even the oldest man in the world, looks like a little bird requesting food to its parents…
…a Love we do need.
This year, as the last one, new born sparrows come to my balcony.
Yesterday, for the first time this year, a baby sparrow has been “left” on a plant on my balcony. It has been “twittering” for at least 2 hours around sunset time… a little annoying but at the end is a nice-sweet thing to see.
I don’t know if these little guys are “blind” or just reckless to let me getting so close to them… but I am happy I had a good chance to take a picture of it., despite the light was all gone already.
I feel like mama and daddy sparrow consider my balcony a kind of “baby parking” .
Too many thoughts or just the desire to fly away. To where? Dunno.
Unplanned shot. Enough lucky shot.
“Escape for a living”, the title that I gave to this picture.
I do love this shot. I put this in my mp3 player as background, more than an year ago. It’s still there.
The birds take off if there is a suspicious noise or shadow getting too close, they survive this way.
My imagination or desire to smile “take off” when a too sad thought or situation is getting too close…but sometimes I cannot catch my own thoughts.
Little sparrows “work” best
And it’s so weird to discover that this picture has been taken on March 30th 2008, just an year before I did the first part of an exam that is slowing down my studies a lot. Looks like someone is trying to mock me, or just to make me smile .
