If you think it’s important, I got the image here at Zimbio

That’s right. It’s a question. And it’s something that has been bugging me lately. Look, I am sick to death of all of this Kardashian Krap going on. They are the “Paris Hiltons” of the moment: Being famous for being famous. They piss me off because of one thing: Not one damned thing they’ve ever done is going to make a damned difference in a hundred years. Nobody will remember them, care about them, think about them and they will be demoted to a small footnote in Wikipedia. Could somebody please tell me what the damned hysteria is all about? Christ!

I keep thinking about that line in Scarface when Montana says to his coke-hussy girlfriend, “Why don’t you get a job? Work with lepers. Blind kids. Anything’s gotta be better than lying around all day waiting for me to **** you.”

But somehow, despite negative energy surrounding everything, the money keeps piling in, the Kardashians keep getting more famous and more weird, and I just keep on typing.

Those fine people at People brought you this mug shot.

Lindsey Lohan is a tragedy. Charlie Sheen made it though his explosive episode of Tiger Blood & Winning and woke out of his initial torpor, followed up by a ripping manic episode to realize that the cash flow was going in the wrong direction. So he straightened up. Such is the power of positive reinforcement. And God knows money certainly is.

“Good for him.” I think, as I clean a bird cage and mop the floor again.  And I do it without tweeting about it or screaming, WINNING!  

Maybe next time I’ll let out a small, faded, “Trying!” And after I’m done with the floor, I sit down and keep on typing. And my question again: Will anyone desperately need the Charlie Sheen drama details in a century?

Headline:  Courteney Cox and David Arquette Officially File for Divorce: Why It’s Sad to See it End

What?  I’m not sad to see it end. I don’t have my “pulse on the finger of the community,” so I don’t give a damn. It’s not important to me. I simply don’t care.

I think about when I was younger and remember what I thought was important at the time.  Oh my God.  I think about it and cringe. Why I gave a damn about certain things and not other matters mystifies me now. A few decades wakes up your fine, furry brain in a hurry, doesn’t it?

These people and what they do, or don’t do, are not important. At least to me. They simply irritate me. What is important to me has nothing to do with the world of OMG! It is at best, a mild distraction from getting what is important to me either across to the world or in my brain so I will have learned something that day.

And I am very sure that anything I have to say, the work of rescue and adoption foundations, The World Parrot Trust, The Tambopata Project, The Alex Foundation and other efforts I feel are worthwhile are of zero interest to them. I can live with that. I simply wish those people would give me half of their clothing budget for just one month.

Phoenix Landing, Best Friends and Florida Parrot Rescue would be doing great! If we could all contribute like that, I don’t think there would be an underfunded animal rescue in the country. But most of us can’t. It’s all we can do to find the time to keep our own lives together. But we give five or ten dollars here or there, foster a bird, adopt a dog or volunteer in some way.

Now this? Important.

It may not appear to be much to others who don’t understand what we do, but I like to think that each one of us is making a small difference in the world with our contributions to the world of birds. I’m not talking about just the monetary contributions either. I think of all of the fostering and cage cleaning, volunteering, rescue work and other small efforts that go on every single day. The little things nobody else notices, nobody else cares about and go unmentioned. Those are the important things. This guy grew up in a log cabin and changed a few things:

He was poor. He made it. Good for him. He’ll remain important for as long as this country lasts.

Kim Kardashian? Ummm…no. If she began in a log cabin and did something that mattered, I’d be impressed. But she started out with a few million. That’ll buy you a LOT of press, influence and seed money for a successful business and the shot at a reality show. But when it comes down to it, what exactly has Kim Kardashian accomplished that made a positive impact in the world?

And in the meantime, people like me are dealing with stuff at our jobs and in our lives.  We all have to deal with our work and the petty little problems that arise.

Then we go home and deal with their lives: The lives of our birds. In many cases, it’s birds somebody else decided they didn’t want.

How much of us is left after a tough day? I can assure you, it’s enough to cope with our flocks because we have to do it.

(This was shot in the middle of a four hour ground delay due to a security breach. Full cabin, tense, nobody spoke English and we were swarming with guys dressed up like G.I. Joes. It was hot as hell, we were waiting for the completion a full aircraft search and I’m periodically yelling information to the ground over jet engines. It was nuts. By the time we took off, we were all exhausted.)

 

People like us go on about our lives every day attempting to make a positive difference in our little world of birds and try to put a scratch on this earth that will be recognized as a positive sign of better things to come. If I only did one thing in my life that I could be happy with what I accomplished, it would probably be the “Chop” thing. Because I believe it has made a positive impact on the way people feed their birds. And I hope it will continue to do that in the future.

But we all have those little moments where we made a difference in the life of a person, a bird, an animal or a rescue. We, as the Parrot Nation have made a difference in so many ways. Don’t sell yourself short. Don’t ever think that what you do doesn’t matter. Because it does. It matters greatly. We may not all end up on American Idol, but it doesn’t matter. (By the way, I have never watched that show. I don’t think it’s important.)

I’d like to think I may have made a small difference here at the blog. I wanted to do the right thing. I write. That’s just one of the things I do to try and help. And there are so many other people who make a difference every day that have a far more direct impact on birds and the rescue and adoption organizations.

We all have entered into the arena of birds attempting to do the right thing. We might not all have managed to get it right all the time. God knows, I’ve screwed up enough times. But we all try. Nobody gets into this by declaring, “I think I’ll screw this up to end all screwups.”

We start out meaning well. But what matters is how we end up. And if we can be successful at making rescues obsolete for lack of necessity, stop poaching, stop the need for adoption and move into a brighter world where nothing is broken or on fire, then we will have made a difference. Because when it comes down to it, that’s what is important.

In the meantime, I just keep on typing. And like the rest of you, I will be trying to make small differences in the world every single day. Let’s keep it up; I think we’re getting somewhere.