Jumping to conclusions (London)

There is an ancient Chinese story (The Warring States period, 475-221 B.C., Liè Zǐ 列子：失斧疑邻) about a man who had lost his axe and suspected his neighbour’s son.  Every time he looked at the neighbour’s son, the latter had all the body language of a thief.  A bit later, the man found his axe.  The next time he saw the neighbour’s son, the latter no longer looked like a thief.  So his brain was leading his eyes astray.

In my case, it was my eyes leading my brain astray in my experience with the two swans that I would espy plying along the canal past my flat when I first moved in one summer seven years ago.  They frequently hung around directly opposite my flat to feed—there must have been a lot of food at that section of the canal—so I would get a good view of them dipping their long necks into the water over and over again.  

I told my ex-landlord Terry about them when I next visited him and Shirley, and he told me that swans mate for life.  I already knew that,  but because he mentioned it, I was always reminded of him and Shirley whenever I saw the swans thereafter, not least because they’d been married for almost 50 years and did practically everything together.  Shirley had once said to me, “We’ve never had a cross word.”

One day the following spring, I found only one swan on the canal.  My immediate thought was, “Oh no!  The other one has died!”  For many days after that, I’d spot the lone swan, this time with a difference in its pattern of movement:  whereas I used to see the pair go past my flat about once a day if they were going towards the reservoirs, or twice if they were going away from the reservoirs, returning later, I now saw the lone swan many times a day, in both directions.  One night, I’d gone into the kitchen for a drink of water at 2 a.m. and found the lone swan on the canal.  I thought, “Poor swan!  It’s frantically searching for its mate up and down the canal, even at 2 a.m.!”

Another few weeks went by, and then I saw them!  A white swan followed by a line of six furry little bundles of grey, with another white swan bringing up the rear.  What I’d thought was the lone swan frantically plying the canal at frequent intervals looking for its dead mate was actually the two swans taking turns in sitting on the eggs and going off to feed.

Update, April 2013:  A couple of weeks back, I saw a single swan again on the canal.  This time, my reaction was one of joyful anticipation.  Last year, they had only one cygnet.  I wonder how many there’ll be this year.

(London 2004)


(See also blog entry 2 + 2 = 5)

In case you're interested, here's the original of the axe story:

Traditional Characters: 戰國 · 鄭 · 列御寇《列子 · 說符》：“人有亡斧者，意其鄰之子。視其行步，竊斧也；顏色，竊斧也；言語，竊斧也；動作態度，無為而不竊斧也。” 

Simplified Characters:  战国 · 郑 · 列御寇《列子 · 说符》：“人有亡斧者，意其邻之子。视其行步，窃斧也；颜色，窃斧也；言语，窃斧也；动作态度，无为而不窃斧也。”