The Insouciant Mockingbird: Unfurled Wings

Most of my friends and family know how I feel about mockingbirds--from the birds in our garden to the beloved book itself, To Kill a Mockingbird. But another favorite writer, Annie Dillard, gives us another famous mockingbird in her acclaimed Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, a philosophical journey through nature. On one of her walks around Tinker Creek, Dillard watches a mockingbird dive to the ground, wings tight against his body and seemingly insouciant in his freefall. At the moment when he might be dashed to the ground, the bird simply unfurls his white banded wings and floats to the grass, not a care in the world.

That word insouciant carries denotative and connotative qualities that are worth sharing. Its origin is Latin and French--in, meaning not, plus the present participle of soucier, to worry. The resulting definition then is free from concern, worry, or anxiety. One source I consulted said, "acting as if one has not a care in the world," which I believe is more to the point. No one is ever totally free of worry or anxiety, and yet how often and in what particular circumstances do we pretend all's right with the world?

Insouciant is where we'd like to be, no doubt, but we aren't. Lately we've been engaging in activities to ease the worries of not only contracting Covid but also dealing with the new normal of wearing masks in public or even continued quarantine. Every institution that is a part of our lives has changed drastically, making us resort to digital, virtual communication and shopping, and up until now rarely leaving our houses or seeing friends and family. When we do venture out into what we hope is a sanitized environment, we do so with a mask to avoid spreading the disease. Covid has not departed, nor is it leaving any time soon.

We may indeed become that insouciant mockingbird eventually, but right now our need for a return to the old normalcy has many of us wanting to stop the world and get off. In 1962 Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley brought an award-winning musical to Broadway called Stop the World--I Want to Get Off. The main character Littlechap has a unique strategy for coping with his life. Every time something unpleasant happens to him, he calls out "Stop the world!" and addresses the audience. After a series of regrettable events, and he has become an old man, he realizes he's always had what he wanted. After so much loss, he is granted the ability to intervene in the surprising end of the play.

We can't stop the world, but we can intervene and make a difference. If like the mockingbird, we make the risky dive from our heights without caution, full of bravado and restless for the life we once knew, will we be able to unfurl our wings for an insouciant land in the soft grass? Will we even recognize that we do have wings?

Let's look at insouciant from another angle, the fake-it insouciant. A look at social media reveals most people want to communicate to others that their lives are just fine, which is understandable. No one wants a pity party (well, maybe now and then), and everyone wants to portray lives of success and happiness.  An examination of the national statistics, however, tells a different story.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25 million Americans suffer from depression each year, affecting nearly 5-8% of Americans ages 18 and over. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reports that over 50% of all people who die by suicide suffer from depression. Currently suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S. More Americans suffer from depression than coronary heart disease and cancer. Although it is the most treatable of psychiatric illnesses, it first has to be recognized. In light of gun violence, the United States has been too slow to recognize mental illnesses of any kind. Job and income loss and the quarantine in which people live in close quarters, often without necessary supplies, funds, or an emotional vent, have resulted in record numbers of domestic abuse and depression.

I queried a number of people to gain insight into the solution to depression, even mild transitory forms of it, and they all had similar answers: physical and emotional self-care, a purpose in life, a healthy perspective, accomplishment, gratitude and faith. Easier said, right?

My daughter Rachel shared with me one of the most accessible organizational strategies to self-improvement that I have yet to see, and I'd like to pass it on to you. These ideas are based on the Hal Elrod Miracle Morning series, and they come in the form of the acronym SAVERS: silence, affirmation, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribe. Each of these activities can be part of a daily ritual that fits into any schedule without time constraints. Each day you spend as little or as much time on them as you like. Silence can afford quiet meditation or prayer. Affirmation involves positive statements that assert truths that can apply to your life. Visualization is a way of seeing the goals you desire, perhaps through a vision board. Exercise is essential self-care for healthy living, even if it's only seven minutes a day. Reading improves your thinking and broadens your experiences vicariously. And Scribe is just another way of saying write--journaling being the most useful and fruitful way to practice writing and to keep a record of your life.

Finally, there really is no silver bullet, but the symbolism of the mockingbird offers hope to our potential state of depression. We know how to look for the good in life if only we will start with baby steps to do so. We can be that insouciant mockingbird that behaves confidently, maybe without a care in the world momentarily--say, a trip to the beach or a walk in the woods with the people we love, because we will have found our wings, unfurled them, and landed safely.