Ace

An online friend owns Ace, a very large avocado-green parrot with patches of red and orange on his head and wings, and yellow bugged-out eyes.  He looks like he should belong to a pirate, although a jolly one - not Captain Hook.

Since Ace so quickly and easily learns new sounds, I imagine his bird IQ to be quite high - right up there with, say, Big Bird.  Or Woodstock.  Or the Roadrunner.

At some point in his career of mimicking, Ace developed an operatic voice, and began delighting his visitors with an ear-splitting, shrill vibrato. Real opera is a very strict discipline that demands impeccable concentration and commitment, and an average of 2-3 hours a day of practice. But Ace?  He didn’t know the textbook version.  He just picked it up after listening to a few CD’s.  And he never forgot.

Some birds in the wild sing to attract mates or defend territories.  Others have flight songs or early morning wake-up songs. But I have a feeling Ace, who is confined to a cage with only his infectious, optimistic Pollyanna personality and some CD’s for company, sings only for the pure joy of song. He sings without obsessing over either the critic or the paycheck.  He sings without killing the love of it. I’m guessing we might all like to be a little bit more like Ace.