Dear President Biden,
Happy Father’s Day and Happy First Day of Summer! Quite a combo, isn’t it? I hope you had fun with at least some of your kids and grandkids and that you got to soak in many minutes of sunlight (after donning sunscreen, of course) today since we’ve now, officially, started losing minutes of daylight every day. To mark Father’s Day, we had a nice conversation with my Dad this morning and learned that he and my stepmom are going to take a big trip at the end of the summer to celebrate his 80th. The trip is to be a cruise, so I hope the world is healthy enough for that to happen, but regardless, it’s wonderful that they have the energy and desire to do such a thing.
The main things closer to home to tell you about today are that I am going to harvest our first little bowlful of raspberries from the bushes in the backyard tomorrow morning and that I think I saw a bald eagle taking a bath in the reservoir across the street this morning. The first bit is pretty straightforward and there’s not much more to say about it, though I’ll try and remember to report in on how tasty they are after breakfast tomorrow.
The second bit feels a little more complicated because I’m not completely certain the bird I saw was an eagle. You see, when I spotted it, I was standing at the front upstairs window while brushing my teeth this morning and because it’s an electric toothbrush on a 2-minute timer I couldn’t just put it down and check out the frolicking bird with the binoculars Laura put by that window yesterday. So when the thing turned itself off, I hustled into the bathroom to spit and was back in under 15 seconds, but the bird had flown off.
Even without a chance for a positive ID, here’s why I think it was an eagle: 1) it clearly had a big (for a bird) white head; 2) it was a huge bird with a major wingspan; 3) it was definitely not a duck or a goose – I know my ducks and my geese; 4) it was all by itself in the middle of the reservoir, and 5) Google says that eagles are strong swimmers and like their baths.
I wish I had just stopped the darn toothbrush mid-brush and used the binoculars to see if I could get a better look at the bird. And, when I got back to the window and saw that the bird and moved on, it was a good universe reminder that it’s not about me – the bird was doing its thing and whether some random human did or didn’t see it long enough to ID it was of absolutely no consequence to it. So there.
Next.
May we all be safe from self-absorbed myopia.
May we all be willing to get vaccinated to keep our elders safe.
May we all be strong and healthy and enjoy our baths.
May we all accept that sunshine comes and goes, and comes and goes.
Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson
The Biden Letters 