Turkey Talk

…And right action is freedom
From past and future also.
For most of us, this is the aim
Never here to be realized;
Who are only undefeated
Because we have gone on trying;
We, content at the last
If our temporal reversion nourish
(Not too far from the yew-tree)
The life of significant soil.
T.S. Elliot, excerpt from Four Quartets

Last week on the way out from the house, I came up suddenly on a mother turkey and her young ones crossing the road. The chicks were past the baby stage and were still a bit unsteady on their long legs and big turkey feet. I stopped the car and waited for her to lead them safely into the brush on the other side of the road, delighting in the gangly necks of the little ones as they hurried to keep up. Then, to my surprise, the mother turned and came back out into the road by herself, stopped in front of my car and turned the full attention of her gaze on me. There in the quiet of the country road, we looked each other over. She seemed to be deciding something and after a few more moments of turning her head this way and that, apparently satisfied herself and returned to her brood waiting patiently in the scrub, leading them on deeper into the woods.
Thinking back over the scrutiny of the mother turkey I thought how much like her we are. Who knows what was going on in that tiny little turkey brain as she came back for another look at me, but haven't we all had those times when we have to go back for another look? And what about the times we march resolutely in one direction, having made a choice, and then after, find ourselves second guessing and lingering on the edges of another different choice? How often have we made a decision we felt best for others, but wished we might have done differently for ourselves?
Now it is pretty safe to say that probably NONE of this was coursing through the Mother Turkey's cerebellum. More than likely she was considering whether I was enough of a threat for her to present herself as a decoy away from her young. After all, I had stopped and was giving her the once over first. But it is a useful metaphor to think about. Our lives are built on choices and we are all linked together by them, for it is the nature of life that what we choose will eventually impact someone else. So we choose and choose, trying over and over to create a life that reflects most closely who we are, making our share of mistakes, circling around for second chances and always hoping to arrive at the end of the day,safely across the road on our way to deeper woods.