The Words, not the Birds

       

 Birds. Such a simple life form. They don't live long and the small amount of time that they are alive they spend doing little more than hopping, flying, and worm-finding. Nevertheless, they help display the way literature can be used to make so much out of so little. When John James Audubon and Annie Dillard were faced with the the same subject to write about, they came up with utterly different results.
         After first seen numerous large flocks of pigeons, Audubon factually describes the 163 flocks he saw in 21 minutes, while Dillard artfully describes the flocks she sees as appearing "like a loosened skein." They both see the same thing and yet, through the medium of their words, they are able to complete a completely different picture. If they used photography, they wouldn't have been able to show anything different from each other, because both have the same physical situation. An audio recording would have also yielded the same for each. But not words.
         These pieces go to show that you can write very effectively about anything. Don't let an excuse of "I don't have anything to write about" as a reason not to write because it simply isn't true. There is always something that you can write about. Afterall, it's the words, not the birds, that made Audubon's and Dillard's piece something special.