1914-2014, Dear Guido and Dear David

Dear David,

Can we transcribe wars through the mythology of birds?

Perhaps it is better to say that the mythology of wars has been

transcribed by the mythology of birds.

Already the Suffist masterpiece by Attar #The conference of birds# is a tale about a discussion between birds on the conditions of the world divided between christians and muslims, written centuries before the fall of Constantinople, so it goes far away, very far away.

The book claims to be «spiritual». Yes, it is, so is the Jihad or the holy war, seen as a spiritual so positive war, debated by birds.

The spirituality of wars ends for me anyway in the broken skulls and bodies of men, women and little children, as it is seen in Gaza and many other places 2day. The holy warriors are to blame. I wish them good luck and happiness, not in paradise but in hell. Wait a minute, I do not believe in the hell after life, but I believe in hell in this life, so that’s part of our common «condition humaine».

Because of the 1914-2014 project I try to read some interesting books about the one they labeled «the great war».

Interesting, is there again a link with birds?

Yes!

For instance:

For Germany it was the nightingale bird, which they connected with feelings of spring, of life, of being reborn, a longing for a joy of life and existence that was quickly crashed in the reality of an unexpected long war in the trenches. The nightingale was NOT a phoenix!

For the Anglo-Saxons it was the lark bird, an off spring of a long literary tradition since Chauser and Shakespeare, as symbol of a new dawn or of «staying alive, ahahaha», a connection between evening and morning, between life and death.

Real issues in the trenches! Between the mud and the stench of death of men and horses the sky and the «song» birds were the only signs of hope, enlightenment and some kind of humanity. The remains of the day were the remains of birds.

In 1940-45 however the emblematic bird became the blackbird but that is part of your great enterprise of decoding wars since 1997 and responsible for how we met and our continuous exchanges and friendship.

It is also symbolic for the evolution of bird mythology,

there is little hope when you confront the blackbird; it is a scavenger of corpses, of bodies and souls altogether.

Where will this end?

In the bald eagle perhaps, in El Condor Pasa or in the Belgian buzzard?

There are so many birds, we simply cannot tell.

Or wait a second: there is a theory that birds are the survivors and the transformers of dinosaurs extinct.

Is that a relief?

If that is our safe house 2day, oh boy, more twin towers will fall for sure, according to Godzilla....

Guido

20 August 2014

PS

a quote from the famous poem In Flanders Fields

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

between the crosses, row on row,

that mark our place, and in the sky

the larks, still bravely singing, fly

scarse heard amid the guns below.