The duck that turned 31..

This duck is 31 years old today. But as the years pass, is there any change in the wisdom at all? The duck has certainly changed from what it was, say 10 years ago. It has obviously grown older physically and there's a lot of change in ideas too. Has all the change been for the good? Or is the word "good" also an illusion?

In the past year, the duck has had a baby duck added to its family. It also lost a grandma duck to death. It has faced high and low tides. There were some mind numbing lulls where nothing happened and then there were waves of excitement. There were a few storms that felt like hurricanes and tsunamis (they probably weren't THAT bad), but the duck has survived it all. It cannot really claim that it hasn't been chafed some, life, after all, is all about the downs too. The duck still believes its lucky to have what it has.

Many a times the duck wonders if the other beings in this world even realize what it is all about. Some beings expect too much of it - if it brings and shares a lot of fish, they think that its nothing taxing as the part of the sea the duck lives in has plenty of fish. They actually blame it and criticize it whenever it gets tired of sharing. Then there are others who think this duck is a good duck and don't seem to realize that this "good" duck has its bad moments and bad days too. They complain "you were not like this earlier", but somehow forget that they in the past were not like what they are today either. And maybe the duck actually has evolved into an unknown being. Or maybe what they assumed the duck to be in the past was actually wayyyyyyy different from what the duck actually was. Maybe they never knew the duck. At all.

One thing the duck has realized in the past year is that man, it has a temper. When it quacks several times and is not heard, the quacks turn into screeches and screams and the duck literally throws a tantrum. Maybe it should learn to gather all the algae/seaweed around it and stuff them into its hugggggge ears, so that it doesn't hear half the things that make it mad. What is a better idea is to stuff the sea weed into its mouth (which is wayyyyyyyyyyyy bigger than its ears), so that no quack comes out ;-).

The duck sometimes finds itself torn between what should be and what is. It doesn't understand what is expected of it sometimes. Torn between complaints and consolations. Torn between taunts and praise. Torn between blasé and insinuations. Torn between accusations and agreements. The duck is thankful for the steady rock that its partner is and somehow they hope to figure things together. The future will only bring with it more expectations, more challenges and whatever the duck may have faced before, its all nothing compared to whats ahead. The duck will surely face it head on :).

The duck is in a very poignant mood today and hence will not be putting up the usual Garfield birthday comics. The duck is also sorry to have confused many beings with this post and shamelessly admits to being thoroughly confused too :-p.

A very happy birthday to the duck and super cheers to all that it actually is :).