#918 Swans are so beautiful

Swans are a bird closely related to geese and ducks. The swan is the largest member of the waterfowl family Anatidae, and are among the largest flying birds. The largest swans can reach a length of over 1.5 m (60 inches) and weigh over 15 kg (33 pounds). Their wingspans can be almost 3 m (10 ft).

Perhaps the best known story about a swan is “The Ugly Duckling” fairytale. “The Ugly Duckling” is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen (1805 – 1875) and was first published 11 November 1843. The story is cute and super inspiring as it tells of a homely little bird which was born in a barnyard and suffers abuse from the other birds and even an old woman’s cat. The ugly duckling runs away and takes shelter from the hash winter in a cave on an island in the middle of a frozen over lake. Spring comes and the ugly duckling notices a flock of swans coming to the lake so the ugly duckling decides to commit suicide I guess figuring the swans will beat him up or something. Anyway each and every swan in the group welcomes the ugly duckling into the group but he can not figure out why until he sees his own reflection in the water of the lake and realizes over the winter he matured into a swan as well.

Isn’t that a cute story? See? Bullies and bullying have been around for ages. Nothing new here kids. Suck it up Buttercup.

Then there is the story of Leda and the Swan and that is about, well… Uh… Let’s just say it was a little somethin’-somethin’ from Greek mythology, in which Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan and then some brown-chicken-brown-cow went down and then William Butler Yeats wrote about it and the rest is well… Read about it here if you dare. It is really weird.

At my Dream House I want to have a lake and stuff big enough to house a pair of swans. They usually have some swan pairs that hang out at the Castle at Disneyland. I looked but sadly did not see them this past trip.

I remember being in Stratford Upon Avon years ago and was walking along the banks of the river near the Royal Shakespeare Company Theater and saw a swan floating about. I happened to have some bread from my sandwich and shared it with the swan. Good times until some others came over and the bread ran out.

Swans usually mate for life, though divorce does sometimes occur, usually following nesting failure. Or if a mate dies, or is killed by a predator, the remaining mate will take up with another swan. Isn’t that sweet? I mean the staying together part. Not the, uh, death part.

If you happen upon a place where there are swans, stop and take a minute to enjoy them. I bet they will make you smile like they always do for me.