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Not Just For The Birds: Molting Into A Better Me

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 17, 2007

Every year, Pyro, my canary, re-invents himself. Except for the timing, he is a lot like those of us who make dramatic New Year's resolutions. "I will lose 20 pounds." "I will be kind to everyone." "I will learn salsa dancing." But Pyro actually goes through with his transformation.

Around January, a lot of us start losing weight. Around April, he starts losing his feathers. Many of us lose five or 10 pounds, then get complacent, and that's as far as it goes. Slowly, self-indulgence takes over our determination, and we stop going to the gym as often and start eating more chocolate cake. But Pyro doesn't quit. He keeps losing until every single feather on his body has been replaced. The feathers fall like snowflakes, and within two months, he's sleek and sassy again, but with a slightly different coloration.

The other thing my canary changes is his song. I don't know how he does it, but every year, he decides to sing in a completely new way. He may stick in a twitter or two from last year's melody, but in general, he composes an entirely new combination of tweets, chirps, warbles and trills. He sits on his perch, dressed up in his new feathers, and joyfully sings a different tune. He's a totally new bird.

How great would it be if we could do the same? Almost all of us have something about our exteriors that we would change, and most of us admit to being less than perfect in our speech or actions. What if, once a year, we could "molt" and become new and improved models of our old selves? What would you change about your appearance? What new tune would you sing?

I'd love to vanish the mini-jowls forming on my jaw, proclaiming to the world that I'm an "old" lady before I ever get a chance to demonstrate how young at heart I am. As for my tune, that's an easy one too. How desperately I long to be a soft-spoken, ever-tactful diplomat, instead of the honest-to-a-fault, impetuous and graceless communicator I often am. How wonderful it would be to always instinctively engage brain, then open mouth, instead of the opposite.

The one thing I forgot to mention about Pyro's transformation is that, when he does it, it's all he does. He stops singing completely. Instead, he sits around emitting soft, pathetic little chirps that almost sound like crying. He becomes completely introspective and anti-social, as if he has spun his own invisible chrysalis.

I wonder if we could stop our normal lives for two months and devote ourselves totally to self improvement, could we too emerge transformed? Unfortunately, I will never find out if that's possible. Since there's no one to take over for me while I "regenerate" for eight weeks, I'm doomed to just keep on keeping on, as they say.

But maybe someday, if it's true what they say about reincarnation, I'll be lucky enough to come back as a canary.

Kris DiGiovanni is a Tampa teacher.

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