Wood duck

   As I walked around Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park yesterday, I noticed a couple of objects that I had never seen before. It seemed obvious to me that they were new and had been installed by human beings.
   Appearing to be made out of some kind of metal, they were shiny, and reminded me of a larger version of something that I have just learned are called Asian conical hats, like the one below. Their shiny metal appearance also reminded me of how alien spaceships were represented in low budget science fiction films from the nineteen fifties, and above them was a narrow, rectangular, dark wood box with a hole cut in it, that looked like an elongated birdhouse.

An Asian conical hat

One of the objects in question, in a picture
taken by me as close to it as I could get to it.

   I passed by the two of these things that were easy to see from the walking path I was on, and thought about asking someone if they knew why they had been placed there, but reassessed that idea, imagining that it would be better if it remained a mystery to me. I often think this way about the things that I see during my morning walks.

   I continued on, and as I approached the southern part of the lake, I saw one of the gardeners that I knew from the park. For whatever reason, I decided to forego my earlier dedication to remaining unknowing about the objects, and asked him about them.

   He told me that they had been placed there recently by the Audobon Society to encourage the nesting of wood ducks. Continuing, he told me that he had only seen one wood duck in the area this year (seen below, in a picture I took), and I told him that this was the case for me as well. He added that other people who are regular visitors to the area had told him that the one that is seen here is too small to be a wood duck. but finished by stating that the Audobon Society must be correct, as they are experts. I agreed with him.

   As I neared the end of my walk, I started thinking about the people that had told the gardener that it wasn't a wood duck at all, about the Audobon Society's determination, and the question of who had authority in this case. I also began to think about determinations in a larger sense, and authority in general.
   Although I certainly resent people that I see as having some kind of influence over me (I resent a lot of people!), the reality for me is that authority, and the idea of it, is in some ways as amorphous and difficult to define as is my own sense of self. The circumstances where power seems most obvious, like when a police officer pulls me over in my car, does anger me greatly, but maybe no more so than my own feelings of powerlessness in general.
   Perhaps when I am very happy, it is at least partly because I feel something like wholeness or integrity; at these times, ideas such as power or repression are far from my mind.
   The animal that you see in the picture below, whatever it is, seems quite contented being as it is. I doubt it is aware of the the discourse waged over it.

Who says I'm a wood duck?