A Murmuration of Starlings
“Although each bird is interacting with its nearby neighbors, every bird’s movements affect and is affected by the entire group, allowing information to travel across the flock at a constant speed. The result is collective decision making so agile that a decision to turn, usually initiated by a bird on the outskirts, can flash through a flock of 400 birds in half a second- a speed of 90 miles per hour. “
Melanie Haiken
National Geographic
March 28, 2021
“Everything you have in this world is just borrowed for a short time”
WITNESS TO A MURDER
Verity Bright
“Love takes up where knowledge leaves off.”
Thomas Aquinas
When I read the article in National Geographic about the behavior of European starlings, it gave me so much joy! Yes, once again, I am finding comfort and joy in reading material. If you are not transported by the printed word, I may have already lost you. Please bear with me, I don’t think you will be disappointed.
There are so many descriptive phrases for groups of animals: a pride of lions, a murder of crows, a parliament of owls, a barrel of monkeys ( yes, that preceded the expression,”more fun than...”), a tower of giraffes, a stand of flamingos, an obstinacy of buffaloes, an exultation of larks, and, my latest discovery, A MURMURATION OF STARLINGS. Isn’t that splendid?
To condense the rather lengthy article, a group of starlings, which can number into the many thousands, is called a murmuration due to the murmuring sound which results from so many tiny wings beating at once. These birds dart and dodge about the sky in perfect synchronization, a ballet in flight. Scientists have studied this behavior, even going as far as constructing elaborate models to mimic the swirling patterns produced by the birds. Although it has been thought for years this was a clever maneuver to evade predators, the scientists have determined that cannot be the whole story. The birds exhibit the behavior in the absence of predatory birds. Besides “why?”, there is the question of “how?” The speed of flight, the huge number of birds, the intricacy of the flight maneuvers defy explanation. Simply put, it is a natural wonder. It is a beautiful, astonishing mystery.
About the same time I read the National Geographic article, Ed called my attention to an article in the New Yorker magazine about the ongoing research to develop an artificial heart. Not surprisingly, this is a subject that has held our interest ever since Ed was undergoing a week in the hospital, almost six years ago, to determine if he was a candidate for a heart transplant. What I learned, in “Missing A Beat”, by Joshua Rothman, is that after years of cardiac research, stretching back to 1948 when Congress passed the National Heart Act, we still must rely on transplantation rather than artificial hearts to save children and adults whose hearts simply cannot sustain their lives anymore due to congenital defects or heart disease. Consider this passage from Rothman’s article:
“It was hard to design a small, implantable device that could beat 35 million times annually, pumping two thousand gallons of blood each day, for years on end. In the following decades, patients survived for days, months, even years on various kinds of artificial hearts, but their quality of life was often poor. They were connected by tubes to large machines, they frequently suffered from strokes and infections, their new hearts were too big or had parts that wore down. Every year, heart disease killed millions around the world. Only a few thousand transplantable hearts were available...There was no such thing as an artificial heart. “
The above passage was written about a young man who went into research in 2001 to find a way to build an artificial heart in an attempt to save his father who was dying from heart disease. Although Daniel Timms’s father, Gary, died from his condition, Daniel Timms continues, to this day, to attempt to unravel the puzzle to building an artificial heart. In 2001, there were roughly 3,500 heart transplants worldwide, 2, 000 of those in the United States. Due to a shortage of donors, there has been virtually no change in those numbers.
In DISPATCHES FROM THE HEART, I wrote about the pioneers of heart transplant surgery, including the incredible work of Dr. Christiaan Barnard, of South Africa, that led to the first successful heart transplant in Cape Town, on December 3rd, 1967. I still get teary reading that portion of our book. Louis Washkansky, a retired plumber with chronic heart disease received his transplant from Denise Darvall, a 25-year-old woman who was fatally injured when a car hit her as she crossed a street. Her father consented to donating her heart and her kidneys. I do not know the fate of the kidney recipient, but Mr. Washkansky lived 19 days with his transplanted heart. It was an incredible achievement.
Forty eight years later, Ed Innerarity received a heart from an unknown donor at Seton Hospital in Austin, Texas. Since then, he has fished miles of rivers in Colorado, California, Idaho, Wyoming, Alaska, Utah, and Montana. He has taken a drift boat, alone, and with friends, down rivers, hiked miles in the wilderness areas of our country, walked miles on numerous golf courses ( no cart- riding for Ed!), snow skied, and flown a float plane in Alaska. He has taught numerous men, women, and children how to fly- fish, including his sons- in- law. His seven- year-old granddaughter has been fly- fishing with “Guapo” since she was 2- years- old. He has walked two of our daughters down the aisle in the last 6 years. Miles of pipe fences have been constructed at our middle daughter’s horse farm by Ed. My husband has transplanted numerous willows to restore and stabilize soil on public waterways. Dozens of pecan trees have been planted by him. Ed lives a life of gratitude and service. None of this would have been possible without the indescribable gift of a heart.
Research will continue on the mystery of murmuration. The quest for a viable artificial heart will also capture the imagination and passion of men and women devoted to healing the millions of people with incurable heart disease. Scientific inquiry, natural wonders, faith, hope, and love will continue to bob and weave us together whether we like it or not. We are all connected, for better or worse. The past year has only confirmed for me that we need one another, we crave engagement, not just transaction. Just think of what could be achieved by living a life with our hearts and minds open to finding purpose beyond ourselves?
Today is Maundy Thursday. It is the day Jesus ate with his disciples, washing their feet, breaking the bread which represented his body, serving the wine, which was his blood. On Good Friday, there was no symbolic gesture- only sacrificial, unconditional love, freely given to save the world. God help us to be a community of humans.
Love and Grace,
Paige
