When you get older more things change than your face and physique, because your mind shifts gears, whether you want it to or not. I think that the mental gearbox develops some slack and that inevitable equivocation is merely the result of having a better understanding of the inherent ambiguity that surrounds most things in life. The dialectic that gives forward impulse in youth seems quaint, if not outright embarrassing. I've found that I am having, of late, a bit of nostalgia with my coffee in the morning. Some geezers have theirs with a pint, or with a whole bottle of sterner stuff. I guess they figure that cancer has bypassed them. so what the heck. I'm wondering, while I still can, if anyone still remaining on this forum, all five of you, ... if anyone can recall what bird, or animal, or close call, got them interested in this forum in the first place? For those of you with a camera, what was the first photograph you took that you felt really pleased with, that is pleased enough to persuade you to try again, and then again, until you became a full-blown addict. That subject would be your gateway drug. Do you still have the photo? What did you feel when you took it? Was anyone receptive to your excitement at the time, or did you need to hang out on a forum like this before anyone could see what you saw? Someone broached the subject of disturbing wildlife in order to get a good shot and whether this was without some benefit to wildlife in the long run because it helped disseminate wildlife appreciation, interest in, support for, etc. I showed a picture of a Cedar waxwing to my neighbour and the response was ... to paraphrase ... oh, I've never seen a bird like that before. I guess if it flew by, or even landed next to me I would have ignored it as just another bird. For any of you, when did 'just another bird' become something more than that?
