I love watching birds flying here and there, communicating with one another, and observing how they interact with people and other animals. They're a diverse lot of beings in all sizes, shapes, and colors, and when I studied Adélie penguins in Antarctica and the various species who lived around my mountain home outside of Boulder (Colorado), I always felt there were some hidden and not-so-hidden messages because not only did I stop to imagine what life was for them, but I also simply felt good watching them do the things they had to do to live and to thrive.
I never really thought much about how birds could rewild our hearts and souls until I read Priyanka Kumar’s outstanding and profoundly moving book Conversations with Birds and now I more about how they also can "teach us about life, social change, and protecting the environment" after reading Dr. Trish O'Kane's outstanding and highly acclaimed new book Birding to Change the World: A Memoir. Because I now know much more about how birds help us learn about and answer some of life's "big" questions, I feel very fortunate that Trish could take the time to answer a few questions about her groundbreaking book.
Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Birding to Change the World?
Trish O'Kane: I had a debt to repay. After Hurricane Katrina, when I moved to Madison, Wisconsin, the birds of Warner Park helped me out of the worst depression of my life. Then when I saw that the birds' homes were threatened by development, I vowed to help them by organizing my human neighbors, and I vowed to share the story of how the birds helped me.
Another reason I wrote it is because it answers the burning research question I had that was tearing me apart when I stood in the ruins of my home in post-Katrina New Orleans: Can we share this planet with other beings without destroying it? I left Louisiana thinking, No, our species just isn't up to this. But when I moved to Madison to earn a Ph.D., and I began studying the birds of Warner Park, and I saw all the humans and non-humans sharing those 200 acres, I realized—scruffy Warner Park is the answer and the answer is a resounding "yes." Yes, we can share this planet without destroying it if we can just be humble enough to learn from other species.
MB: Who do you hope to reach in your interesting and important book?
TO: I want this book to provoke a wave of starling-style murmurations among these human flocks:
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass said, "It's easier to build strong children than to repair the souls of broken men." We are not building strong children in our schools. Pediatric occupational therapists report that children today are weaker in muscle mass and core strength than children decades ago. They cannot focus and we are medicating them to make them sit still.
MB: Why should readers of Psychology Today be interested in your book?
TO: There is a massive mental health crisis among the young which I see every day, particularly among my very anxious undergraduates. At universities today, we are no longer afraid of the COVID pandemic—we are terrified of a suicide pandemic. More psychologists could incorporate birding and nature walks into their practices. Psychologists could testify before school boards and lobby for more recess time and less screen time. Immediately after Katrina, I could not sit inside staring at a screen, which is what I had done for years as a journalist. My brain was shot. I couldn't focus. The only thing that felt good was to sit outside on the ground, listening to the wind whistling through the trees. My breathing deepened, my heart rate slowed and my nervous system began to calm down.
In 13 years of teaching birding, every semester my students tell me how they feel better after they do their birding homework. Because birds turn you into an optimist—they train your mind to wake up every morning expecting to see something beautiful, something miraculous, anywhere and everywhere. And birds also help us focus, which could solve the current "attention crisis."
References
In conversation with Dr. Trish O'Kane. a writer and a senior lecturer in environmental justice at the University of Vermont, where avians are her teaching assistants. A former human rights journalist in Central America and the Deep South, she has written for the New York Times, Time, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
How Birds and Nature Rewild Our Hearts and Souls; The Other Side of Silence: Rachel Carson’s Views of Animals; Trees Lower Medication Sales for Heart and Mood Disorders; The Heartbeat of Trees: An Uplifting Spring Read; Why It's Essential to Listen to the Hidden Sounds of Nature.
Eftaxia, Giota. The Powerful effect of the sound of nature on human health. Radio Art, 2021.
https://milkweed.org/book/conversations-with-birds
https://www.amazon.com/Birding-Change-World-Trish-OKane/dp/0063223147/
What Birds Teach Us About Life, Social Change, and Nature
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25.02.2024
I love watching birds flying here and there, communicating with one another, and observing how they interact with people and other animals. They're a diverse lot of beings in all sizes, shapes, and colors, and when I studied Adélie penguins in Antarctica and the various species who lived around my mountain home outside of Boulder (Colorado), I always felt there were some hidden and not-so-hidden messages because not only did I stop to imagine what life was for them, but I also simply felt good watching them do the things they had to do to live and to thrive.
I never really thought much about how birds could rewild our hearts and souls until I read Priyanka Kumar’s outstanding and profoundly moving book Conversations with Birds and now I more about how they also can "teach us about life, social change, and protecting the environment" after reading Dr. Trish O'Kane's outstanding and highly acclaimed new book Birding to Change the World: A Memoir. Because I now know much more about how birds help us learn about and answer some of life's "big" questions, I feel very fortunate that Trish could take the time to answer a few questions about her groundbreaking book.
Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Birding to Change the........
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