Bird-Watching Sparks Thoughts on Religion and Values

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Last Thursday as the sun peeked over the Wasatch mountains I found myself hiking through grass so laden with dew that it dampened my pant legs. Green-tailed towhees whistled to greet the dawn. About a mile up a steep hill I joined the others, all of us silent as we peered toward a flat area, straining to catch glimpses of buffy brown chicken-sized birds that blended so perfectly with the grass and ground that they were nearly imperceptible unless they moved.

As part a Great Salt Lake Bird Festival field trip, the group of us arrived shortly after dawn so that, with luck, we would see these Columbian Sharp-tailed Grouse perform their mating dance. The males will bow, raise their tails straight up, spread their wings and twist and turn and run. The females will watch and then select a mate.

I describe the wonder of seeing the grouse dance, but words are no substitute for standing in the high country air, watching the sharp-tailed grouse dance and listening to the buzz of Grasshopper Sparrows, the trill of Brewer’s Sparrows and the cheery warble of Western meadowlarks.

Leks, as the grouse breeding areas are known, are not common in Utah, so I felt fortunate to get a spot on the  Bird Festival’s field trip to 4-Mile Ranch, which has a lek on its property. As we walked back to our cars, one of the ranch owners told me that they like to participate in the bird festival because many people don’t appreciate the need for habitat conservation unless they see for themselves a sight like the grouse dancing.

His comment reminded me of a concept in my current theology class that, upon first reading, I disagreed with: that no one who does not practice a religion can understand it. Upon reflection, however, I think it’s true. I experience this quite frequently when I encounter visitors to the Cathedral of the Madeleine who do not share our faith. On the walls they see 14 paintings of a man praying, being beaten, carrying a cross and being crucified, while as a Catholic I see Christ’s Passion and death, with all that it entails. Once I was explaining the Stations to a visitor who was familiar with the story of Jesus’ life, but she stopped me when I talked about the station depicting Veronica wiping His face. That episode isn’t in the Bible, she objected, which is true. However, it is part of Catholic tradition.

Of course, you could study Catholicism and learn its symbols and stories, but you cannot understand the mysteries unless you experience the grace of God, or the peace that prayer can bring, or the communion of the Eucharist.

In my other class we had a presentation on addiction. Most of the information was old hat to me, but in a video about the impact of Facebook and Snapchat, Tristan Harris pointed out that social media, with its tally of the number of likes a post garners, ties a user’s self-worth to the approval of other people. On social media, “attention is the currency of success,” Harris says, and while in the electronic world that may pose no problem, in the real world the implications are frightening. If I feel worthy only when I get approval from others, how can I feel good about myself when my life consists primarily of unplugging the toilet, cleaning the cat’s litter box, doing the grocery shopping, cleaning the kitchen, paying the bills, and the thousand other mundane chores that are commented on only when they are not done?

I do these chores because I value living in a clean house, being able to make my own meals and not being harassed by debt collectors, but in his video Harris asks how we determine what is important in our lives.

“The less someone has defined their own values, the more vulnerable they are to someone coming in and giving them their values,” he says.

Religion imparts values only to its practitioners, not to those who merely study it. I support programs that feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless and welcome the stranger because I believe it’s the right thing to do, both on a personal and governmental level. My faith teaches these values, but I believe them because I have experienced the grace that comes from living them.

Marie Mischel is editor of the Intermountain Catholic.