Wings upon the Bird
I used to travel a lot, departing my home in a Minnesota state forest. Prior to a business trip to France, I picked out wallpaper for my main bedroom, a delicate print of small birds, vines, and flowers, understated and tasteful. I left my house key with a couple of businesswomen who painted and papered.
Months later, I returned. Everyone admired their work, perfect trim, invisible seams. Next evening my girlfriend showed up bearing food and wine. We adjourned to the bedroom. She glanced at the walls and asked one question.
Why is the wallpaper upside down?
Two professional paperhangers, three employees, four visitors, and *me*— Not one of us noticed what one girlfriend saw: Every tiny pear tree partridge was not perched, but clung desperately to little upside down twigs.
The paperhanging ladies couldn’t believe it. Hell, I couldn’t believe it. They begged me not to pass out their business cards. That was my first and last attempt to paper a room. I sometimes wonder what succeeding residents thought.
Birds upon the Wing
Not long ago, a Vietnamese-American woman (AKA @CorndogCalamari) advanced a curious hypothesis:
All white people have one thing in common: Birds in their homes.
Bird décor, that is… statuettes, ceramics, metal sculptures, paintings, etc. Not the Relationship Bird Theory advanced by Cosmo’s Science Department last year.
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| Valentine (goffin cockatoo, 30+yo) |
‘All white people’ is a pretty broad generalization, even on Tik Tok. The funny thing is… she pretty much nailed it. It’s particularly funny for folks convinced of their exceptionalism to abruptly realize they have a picture of a peace dove, an American eagle, or perhaps a pink flamingo on Emphysema Uncle Joe’s 1950s souvenir ashtray.
Thinking *I* had no decorative items, I felt pretty smug. Valentine agreed. Valentine, er, my white, very white goffin cockatoo… a big unmistakeable bird… Wait, hold on, he is decorative but not exactly décor.
Then I realized, the girlfriend who discovered the inverted birds-of-a-bedroom in long ago Minnesota had hung two painted macaws high on my Florida walls. Not something I’d pick out, but who knows where birds come home to roost.
Even Alcatraz prisoners found birds to cheer their dreadful cells. Thus our observant ceramics birdwatcher seems to have stumbled upon somewhat of a truism.
Will my fellow crime writers seize upon this phenomenon as a mystery clue? Curious creatures want to know.
Surely, not I? Then spotted a framed painting of a bird I'd given my beloved Mum - a keen twitcher - years ago and which, with her passing, is mine once more.
ReplyDeleteGood to see Valentine looking as youthful as ever. (Hope the same can be said for his chief cook and bottle washer...)
Your mum... cockatoo coffee cup...
DeleteThis gal fits the saying! But then, I'm a bird watcher from way back. When a newspaper asked why I worked from home (writing for magazines) for a few years when my first daughter was born, I said, "because I wanted her to know what a cardinal sounded like." (The Toronto Star printed that!) To me, birds are magical. And I would get terrific giggles from that wallpaper, Leigh! I'd never have changed it.
ReplyDeleteMelodie, I refused to change it. The pattern was small and intricate, and I didn't mind at all. I enjoy paisley and the gestalt suited me just fine, but I do wonder if the buyer who came after wondered if we were DUI– decorating under the influence.
DeleteLeigh, you raise deep questions. For example, are Jewish girls "white?" My home is free of living, stuffed (toy), and ornamental (art) ornithological objects, but I plead guilty to holiday cards bearing doves of peace hanging year round from ribbons in my living room windows and a dove (some forty-odd years old now) that appears every December to perch atop our multicultural family's ecumenical/ secular/ artistically classy Xmas tree. Anyhow, who sez Asian, Black, Latinx, or any other ethnic groups eschew birds? Let's see some real research before we make sweeping (or is it flapping?) generalizations.
ReplyDeleteWhat a brilliant line, Liz.
DeleteAmong the various respondents about the bird theory was, I believe, a black woman who collected bird ornaments. She remarked her accumulation of 500+ birds offset the White Bird Theory all by itself.
Sweeping/flapping, Liz… Hey, we're both winging it.
Ha ha, when my mother was learning to sew as a teenager, she made a dress with a flower print & come to find out she had cut the dress out upside down!! I think she may have had to wear it anyway because I know her family was quite poor then, in the 1930s.
ReplyDeleteI have lots of bird pictures or objects. Right here in my office I have a picture of a male & female cardinal sitting on a branch.
Aww. Your mother must have been heartbroken, Elizabeth. But she persevered, and that's what counts.
DeleteI have a number of things of ravens: I have a wonderful ink wash by an artist of a woman transforming from / into a raven. Another of a raven with a whole landscape reflected in its body. And someone gave me a wonderful ceramic dish of a raven (black, with a red dot eye) that's where I put my keys at night. Our local murder of crows which circles around the neighborhood knows me, because I put out food for bunnies and squirrels and crows, and when I go out the watchcrow lets out a caw. I figure the caw means "It's just her, go about your business." I always call back, "Say hi to Crow Woman and Dark That Rides." They don't fly away.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, my Crow Woman stories
Sorry, my computer glitched. Crow Woman and Dark That Rides the two center, spooky characters of a series of my own invention. Raven Woman just didn't have the same ring as Crow Woman.
ReplyDelete