{"id":21132,"date":"2017-07-05T08:02:27","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T15:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=21132"},"modified":"2017-07-05T08:04:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T15:04:00","slug":"like-a-bird-on-a-wire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=21132","title":{"rendered":"Like a bird on a wire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There is something unsettling about seeing a bird on a wire &#8212; possibly this arises from the juxtaposition of wild and processed.<\/p>\n<p>The memorable line, <em>like a bird on a wire<\/em>, came from Lenard Cohen. In the 1960s, he was living on the Greek island of Hydra when the beginning of electrical distribution resulted in a disturbing sight: Birds began to perch on the newly installed wires. This shift in the landscape prompted his iconic song about the freedom to choose. From the bird&#8217;s point of view, a wire was just another available perch, which was maybe what Cohen was getting at when he wrote:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>Like a bird on the wire &#8230; I have tried in my way to be free.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In his song, Cohen used <em>like<\/em> as a comparative. However, I use it as a verb when I say: On balance, I <em>don&#8217;t<\/em> &#8220;like a bird on a wire&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>All of which makes the line ambiguous. Four birds on wires follow.<\/p>\n<p>Mountain Bluebird<br \/>\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/mountainbluebird150329cs.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-13143\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Tree Swallow<br \/>\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-21133\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/treeswallow170618s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Rough-winged Swallow<br \/>\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-21134\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/roughwingedswallow170618s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Common Yellowthroat<br \/>\n <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-21135\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/yellowthroat170703s.jpg\" alt=\"\" onclick=\"return false\" onmousedown=\"return false\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; There is something unsettling about seeing a bird on a wire &#8212; possibly this arises from the juxtaposition of wild and processed. The memorable line, like a bird on a wire, came from Lenard Cohen. In the 1960s, he &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/?p=21132\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21132"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21174,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21132\/revisions\/21174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kootenay-lake.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}