This morning I walked downtown to the city chess club to check up on a friend's tournament progress and then I walked to Northerly Island to run the hill. I felt a rare, youthful strength in my legs and arms and I could perceive little difference between running Blackwell Hill in 1986 and running the Island Hill in 2024. I lost count of the reps, but halfway through, as I was descending and starting to feel tired, I looked up into the sky and saw a white feather also descending, slowly. It landed next to me and I picked it up and thought of Billy Mills epic Olympic 10k race. I sensed the feather was a gift from the Great Protector so I placed it in my Sox cap and continued on with the run. As I completed the final reps I decided to offer the feather to the Jewel Tree at the beach. The feather indeed gave me strength and protection and when I returned home my energy had not waned so I refilled the water bottle and walked/ran to the track for the normal exercise routine of muscle reps and sprints.
Historically a white feather was used, mainly in Britain, to shame men into joining the military during both world wars. If a male was seen out of uniform a woman would offer him a white feather as a way of expressing contempt for his cowardice, so in European culture to receive a white feather was a great insult. I won't deny the power of public shaming, an individual human, especially a human in the slave class, has little chance of survival if kicked out of the hive, so conformity and obedience are the qualities a slave must possess. My low status among the slaves has up to now given me good protection from shaming and peer pressure. I have experienced multiple instances of shaming in order to get me to conform, but having little to lose - no group of friends, no money, no future - meant shaming me had little consequence. I know I can easily be broken, though, through physical and mind torture, so it is not that I am strong, I have just been lucky.
Today's white feather, not given to me by a British belle during a war-time propaganda blitz, can perhaps go beyond being a symbol for cowardice. I doubt the Great Protector is taunting me, so I can entertain other possible meanings. I can't deny the feather had a positive impact on my day and I was happy to offer it to the Jewel Tree.