Truth HQ by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T R U T H H Q

down the hillside towards the nearby river. I arrived to find the stranded chick desperately trying to scramble up the banking back to pond level. Meanwhile, all the other swans were

gathered at the head of the weir, too big to fly down into the ravine, and anyway, probably not able to execute a rescue, even if they could get down to the stranded chick.

I set aside any apprehension of neighbours’ disapproval, scrambled down the steep bank of the ravine, cupped the chick in my hands and placed her safely back up onto the pond. Mama swan looked me in the eye and gave a series of squawks – sounds I’d never heard a swan make before. Had she understood that this was a rescue? It was difficult to tell, but well, wasn’t there at least some responsibility there for the safety of her chick?

Morally responsible swans.

I went back up to the pond a few hours later, to check everything was okay. The swans were gliding serenely, well away from the weir. All three chicks were safely asleep on their mama’s back.

Swans, you see – serene from a distance! And humans? Maybe we could learn to be

serene close up. Maybe we could learn to

converse properly, and talk our way towards better ways of living.

The story continues in ‘The View from the Mountaintop’.

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