De-coupled
A couple is a union, a coming together, a meshing of the minds; a couple is meant to last. There was an attraction between the two once separated individuals that brought them together in the same place, at the same time, and for good reason!! Not all couples are brought together on purpose, sometimes it happens quite by accident, sometimes with a little push from outside forces, and sometimes because of their own movement towards one another. When a train engine couples together with a box car slated for transport to distant lands, the engineer brings the cars together and the knuckle coupler automatically swings into action, locking the cars together; then, once coupled, a locking pin drops into place; thereby securing the link.
All living creatures, both big and small, are coupled together with the necessity to eat, drink, ingest, and consume; because there is no Life on this planet or anywhere else for that matter that does not need to consume matter and have access to water. For us, as living, eating, breathing, walking, talking, drinking, and thinking beings, we are in control of our words, our thoughts, our actions, and what we ingest, to include: what we eat, when we eat, where we eat, and how much we eat. Once we reach the age of accountability here in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, nobody can tell us what to eat, when to eat, where to eat, or how much to eat; it's a beautiful thing!! See, we are free, and it is we who are driving our own train down the tracks to the destination of our own choosing.
Some people, maybe many people, have told me that they have no control over how much they eat, they live by the See-food diet; "if I see-food, I eat food!!" People have told me that they have no power over the pull of food; they cannot say no to a bag of chips, a box of ice cream, or a bucket of chicken, until they hit the bottom. At the bottom of the bag, the box, or the bucket, there is no other way to go than up, so then and only then, can they effectively de-couple from the pull of that food. In the realm of trains, tracks, and going the distance, trains are coupled and decoupled many times over the course of their lifetime in service to humanity. To uncouple one train from another the coupling mechanism needs to be dis-engaged and it may require a tool to set one train free from the other; this process often requires the train to be going at slow speeds or to be completely stopped.
Bird Food for Life is simply a tool, a means, and the in-between, for helping people to uncouple from what besets them, in Life and in living; be it over-eating, over-drinking, challenging-relationships, addictions, and the like. There are many things, good, bad, and in-different, that are vying for our attention and possible over-consumption here in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave. One of the big messages exemplified here in this body of work is the concept of "taking our minds off the malady and putting them on Life and living." It is a concept as old as the age of mankind, but in today's world of instant gratification, fixes, mixes, pills, shrills, and procedures, it has been lost on us; but once we get engaged in what is most important to us, what we truly enjoy, what we want to do, and what is taking us in the direction of our own-choosing, then our mission becomes clear, the clouds part, and every new-day becomes a new-opportunity to start a-new. It's a beautiful thing...