A Conclave of Cardinals and a Gathering of Fowls

As the Roman Catholic cardinals sequestered (not to be confused with our Congress sequestering our money and holding our budget hostage) themselves in conclave to select the next Peter to fill the role of Jesus’s Fisher of Man, or rather Kingfisher of Man, on earth, the twitter-sphere have been flooded with tweeting, chirping and trilling of all kinds, including a few squawks and scolds. We have not seen such a huge avian gathering at one place since the date of Noah’s Ark. I am not talking about only those birds of the same feather or plumage either; beside cardinals, you also have all sorts of domestic fowls, waterfowls and wildfowls.


Some tweets are decent enough, positive and easy on the ears, such as those from the larks, canaries, song sparrows, nightingales and humming birds. Some emit harsh, critical and deafening squawks from the like of magpies, grouses and crows. Some tweeters even provoke unsolicited attacks from the like of mocking birds, nutcrackers and cuckoos, with a few loons thrown in the mix. With all these going on, you can sense a few raptors, such as chicken hawks, vultures and carrion crows, perching on the sideline branches, waiting for a chance to pounce on any weak tweets for a twitter kill. Amid all these chatters, tweets and twitters, all rules governing the pecking order are forgotten and ignored, mob rule rules.


In spite of all the talks about the next Kingfisher coming from Africa or Asia, I have a feeling that he will be a bird of paradise from the Emerald Isle, either from Oz or Ireland. I sincerely hope the next Pope will implement reforms such as contraception to control world population, celebration of sacraments by laymen or laywomen, and ordination of female clergy. I know what I propose may raise quite a few hackles among some conservative birds, or even causing them to flip a few birds. But what is good for the gander is also good for the goose, as they say. Or as a Chinese proverb so wisely states: let a hundred flowers bloom in whatever colors they choose, let a hundred birds tweet in whatever pitches they best manage.