Maude White - Brave Birds: Inspiration on the Wing

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Table of Contents

Guide

BRAVE

BIRDS

Inspiration on the Wing

Maude White

abrams image, new york

TABLE OF CONTENTS

BIRDS IVE BEEN

I have loved many birds in my life.

Loved the abstract notion and existence of birds

as much as the physical, tangible birds themselves. Often, the sight or sound of a bird

has given me both bravery and hope.

My love for birds has not always been particular. There are birds I have loved

without knowing their names and birds I have loved for the beauty of their song alone.

Sometimes, all I have needed from a bird has been the flicker of its body, the connection

through sight with a creature unbounded by the physical earth. I have always felt that

looking upward instills hope in those of us tethered to the ground.

At other times, I have gained strength and encouragement from a specific bird,

finding it out in the world, in literature, and ultimately in my own body, as I recognized

those same instincts and skills that I so loved and admired within the bird.

I am a language person, a word person. Words hold power, both alone and

together. In its simplest definition, a bird is an egg-laying, feathered vertebrate. But as

happens so often with language over time,

bird

has also come to refer to both a human

female and a human of either sex possessing peculiar or interesting characteristics.

The usage of the word

bird

to refer to a woman dates from the beginning of

the twentieth century. Independent of that most recent appropriation, there is an older,

Middle English word

burde

that originated in the 1300s to refer to a young female.

That this old, forgotten word has been resurrected in usage and meaning in our present

world both fascinates and moves me.

Unfortunately, this current habit of referring to a woman as a bird grants little

respect to the woman in question. The term implies overfamiliarity and dismissiveness.

This surprises me. After all, birds possess beauty, strength, intelligence, and a wild and

powerful will to survive. They connect us to the sky and the water, realms that we, as

humans, cannot ourselves easily traverse. Birds evolved from dinosaurs! How can one

not feel awe and respect?

As with the word

bird

, I am strongly drawn to the word

brave

. By definition,

bravery is generally defined as having or showing courage.

I believe the word

bravery

should be used more often. In todays language, the

word seems to refer to the absence of fear or to physical or dramatic acts of heroism,

making

bravery

, as a concept and a personal experience, impossible for many of us to

ever truly embrace or believe we have achieved. But I believe that myriad small, everyday

acts require bravery and strength and should be honored, celebrated, and appreciated.

The

Brave Birds

idea grew from my wish to claim and reclaim our current cul-

tural definitions of both

bird

and

bravery

. My love for birds knows no constraint. It is a

welcoming, hungry passion that requires neither understanding nor complicity from the

birds themselves. My identification with birds and my reference to us all as brave birds

arises from the hope that we human birds might someday be able to apply to ourselves

the same selfless admiration and love that we feel for literal birds out in the wild and in

the abstract. I want us, as human birds, to be able to feel passion and understanding for

ourselves. I want us to love and experience the simple wonder of

our

existence, just as

we love without judgment the existence of the physical birds we see and hear out in the

world each day. In this way, I believe that we are all brave birds.

Early in 2014, I was attacked. As I healed and recovered, I began drawing and

cutting a great blue heron. During that time I was afraid to leave my home. I was afraid

of the darkness. I was afraid of my own memory and my lack of memory.

As I carefully drew and then cut each feather on the great blue heron, as I

studied and moved around my giant bird creation, I began to feel as if the heron I was

creating was simultaneously becoming a part of my body, investing me with those qual-

ities I admired and loved so much. To this day, I cannot see a great blue heron without

feeling a surge of love and gratefulness. During my recovery, that heron was my friend,

my doctor, and I held his essence in my body as I healed. He was my bird, my concept

of safety and strength.

Five months later I was mugged. The mugging occurred in the daytime, and

soon I found myself falling not only back into my fear of the darkness, but experiencing

new fears of the daylight world as well.

BRAVE BIRDS

Again, I turned my knife to cutting a bird. This time, I began work on a girl

and a crow. In the piece the crow was emerging from the womans face. I wanted this

crow to symbolize the dark and vengeful bird that I wished could come forth to confront

any mugger approaching any seemingly defenseless woman. I wanted this wild, ruthless,

and savage bird to inhabit my shrinking, hesitant body. I wanted this bird to help me

do what I had been unable to: defend myself. The crow was my symbol, my protective

confidante. The crow gave me the strength and the courage to leave my home again.

P R E F A C E

I have been many birds in my life. I have been a hummingbird, flying backward

into the past. I have been a barn swallow, quick and sure in decision and strength. I have

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