This may be more appropriate for St Patrick day but I am thinking about the luck of the Irish. Actually I am writing this on the day we are to wear green and here I sit in all black – luckily no one has pinched me. So where does that idea originate? Leprechauns are actually one reason you’re supposed to wear green on this day – or risk getting pinched! The tradition is tied to folklore that says wearing green makes you invisible to the wee green ones, who like to pinch anyone they can see. Hank and I like to play rhyming word games and as good fortune would have it is possible to say the “lek” of the Irish.
I had a conversation with a friend who reported she was heading out to see the Sage Grouse mating ritual on the “lek”. She went on to describe what they expected to see. Take a minute and watch one of the many videos available on YouTube.
The term is likely Old Norse, Swedish specifically – meaning mating ground, game, or play. The English dictionary says it is a small area in which birds of certain species gather for sexual display and courtship. Seems like the bar at Barbacoa also fits this description. The male birds fill their prominent air sacs and puff up theirs chest while they display their beautiful tail feathers – all the while strutting and calling. Apparently, with luck, this attracts a female and the ritual begins. The once endangered Greater Sage Grouse has benefited from a collaboration among 11 western states, the Department of the Interior, USDA and more than 1100 ranchers. There is more to do to protect the habitat for the bird and 350 other species who thrive in the same environments. It is encouraging to see the same kind of cooperation that protected our Boulder White Clouds continue. While we can agree on pristine forest vistas, birds and grizzlies – we are making little progress on gun violence, opioids, and immigration.
Franklin Roosevelt felt “competition has been shown to be useful up to a point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.” As we seem focused on Nationalism and bipartisan stalemate – I thought General Dwight Eisenhower saw the big picture issue clearly. “Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men (humans) to the dawn of eternal peace.” We have a lot of work to accomplish to brighten up the future for our children.
Enjoy the week end. Mike