Why do the birds go on singing?

These lyrics, from the song "The end of the world" sung by Skeeter Davis when we were still  on South Third Avenue (1963 for those who may be curious), came to me just last Saturday as I was walking around the neighborhood after the big flash storm of the previous night that left us without power and with a lot of downed trees.

It was hard for me to see these magnificent trees laying down, pulling up swaths of earth with their roots. Broken, twisted, and yet still alive with a relatively recent greening.
There were tears in my eyes at the sight of one stately pine in particular.
It almost hurt.

And yet.

It was sunny.
Folks were out cleaning up, some even working in their gardens. Neighbors helping neighbors.
The sun was shining and I saw my first dragonfly of the summer in Powderhorn Park.

And the birds didn't miss a beat.
They were out "singing up a storm"(drôle d'expression).
I rejoiced inwardly and smiled outwardly as I focused on their song.

What does this have to do with learning Hungarian?
Well, the word for tree in Hungarian is "fa" and the Hungarian word for bird is "madár".
(I don't yet know the word for rejoice. )

But there's more than that.

There's that joy and beauty right up there with, surrounding, encompassing, the evidence of the "destruction" of the night before.
And what's with this use of quotation marks?

Well, I certainly don't want to compare my childhood with a destructive storm(mostly), but I do want to compare my study of Hungarian to the singing of the birds. Celebration and joy for no particular reason, which is my favorite reason of all.

I've been laying down the burden for quite some time.
With the study of the language of my father, I am picking up the joy.
Allowing my self to remember the love, even if, and maybe just because, it disappeared.
Allowing myself to create, and then celebrate, the love in its perceived absence.

So, for me, it's not the end of the world, it's simply a contrast that invites us to move beyond.

I imagine that's why the birds go on singing.

Szia, világegyetem.
Szeretlek,
Páfrány