Bird Man Not Off His Perch

A common sight in downtown Spokane is an elderly man named Joe, better known as the Bird Man. Every day, around 10 a.m., he comes ambling down the street carrying three or four bags of bread. He’s a short man who is kind of hunched over. His clothes look old, but at least they’re warm. He always wears a big brown coat. When it is really cold out, he wears a bright fluorescent stocking cap.

He sits down on a bench in front of Our Lady of Lourdes Cathedral. Soon the birds flock to him. He is there for hours feeding the birds and talking to them. He does not seem to notice other things that are going on around him.

I met Joe one day while I was walking downtown. I had seen him there a million times. He looked lost. Since I work with elderly people, I was concerned about him. So I thought I would take a minute and talk to him.

He was far from lost. He was there to meet with his friends, the birds. Every day people in their cars have to stop and see him because he throws bread for his friends into the street rather than in the park. He is infamous among downtown drivers.

At first, he didn’t want to talk to me. Maybe he was afraid. But I went up and said hello to him anyway. He invited me to sit down and even gave me some bread to feed to his birds.

Soon he was telling me all about the different kinds of birds. He told me their textbook names, along with the personal names he’d given to several of them.

I came to find out that he visited the same spot every day to feed the birds. He had been coming for five years.

Joe takes the time to stop and feed the birds. In our fast-paced society, it seems there is little time to slow down. Watching him do the same thing, twice a day, in any kind of weather, teaches us a lot about dedication.

We could all learn a little something from Joe, such as the importance of friendship and doing what really makes you happy.

Inadvertently, Joe helps us all slow down a little, lest we run over his precious birds.

MEMO: Your Turn is a feature of the Wednesday and Saturday Opinion pages. To submit a Your Turn column for consideration, contact Rebecca Nappi at 459-5496 or Doug Floyd at 459-5466 or write Your Turn, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210-1615.