serious birdwatching.......

ok, so i settled into a long soak in the whirlpool tub with a glass of wine and the newest new yorker......and almost shrieked with delight at finding that the article that accompanied the lovely pen and watercolor drawings of birds.......was written by jonathen franzen.........i can recall a parallel experience......when i discovered that the intriguing article alzheimer's disease i was tearfully devouring was also penned by this author..that article came out not long after my dad died......and i could managed to read the article between swipes with a hank.....Franken, for the record is the guy who so upset Oprah by refusing to promote (sell) his book on her show.........I tried to pitch the corrections to bookshelf ;last year....But made the mistake of also bringing along a heartbreaking work of staggering genius....and having used the descriptive......dysfunctional family for both......they opted to read the eggars book solely because i had heard the author at joseph beth.......and someone else had mentioned how funny it was......and then the dysfunctional part scares folks........most people i know could describe large parts of their past or present as dysfunctional......and though my bookclub rejected this book presumably to avoid reading something so close to home.....many of our picks turned out to be just that.......folks who have a hard time getting along/being nice to each other/following through with commitments.......ok, so my concentration has been diverted by conversations about bikes, diabetes, and feeding the cat.......and now i must regroup to my article...about birds........i have come to enjoy the looking up of birds in a series of bird books...indigo buntings. baltimore orioles, slate junkos.....several varieties of woodpeckers..........and i can identify several.....not to the extent of franzen....who counts the birds he has seen....like someone who keeps track of every state and country visited.....i can see myself traveling to south texas to look for masked ducks.....or to arkansas to look for the supposedly extinct woodpecker.........maybe birding is what lies in wait for me as a next-act in my personal screenplay............of course, franzen threw in the circumstances of his mother's passing....and how his current girlfriend arrived too late to actually meet her.......this inclusion was made more poignant by the american express ad featuring tiger woods hugging his mother......environmental issues are the backdrop for this piece.....and the notion that franzen put off having children with his first wife because there was the question of bringing a child into this polluted world....and now that he is into his med forties......and dating a woman older still....he worries that he has missed the boat on family.......and i find myself tearfully reading yet another installment of franzen's life........like an extended blog that i am supposed to read...as opposed to one that i read like a thief in the night......and i was reminded so of anne lamont......who writes about things so personal that her family could not be aware, or are so sedated as to not notice.....i can openly imagine myself going out on such a limb....and having my closest kin go into my blog to erase all record.....note to self...change passwords.......everybody else should write from the heart, except for people who know all of your own secrets............that is the conundrum.....i have wondered myself about child #1 and his potential as a novelist......what will i do or say when i see myself....warts and all....on the printed page......having done/said/inferred something outrageous........in words that all can peruse and ponder........i suppose i will just have to pour myself a big glass of wine....and climb into the whirlpool tub........and read somebody else's child's stuff...........