They Just Do
Someone asked me a question about FenceBoard Flyers the other day.
“Why do the birds fly airplanes?”
I looked at them.
“Because they're FenceBoard Flyers.”
“No, I mean they're birds. They can already fly, why do they need airplanes?”
I smiled and shrugged my shoulders. At the time, that's about as far as the conversation went.
But I've been thinking about it ever since, and I'm starting to believe I got out of that conversation at exactly the right time.
Because suppose I had tried to answer it.
“Well, Rodee flies Look-See.”
“I know. But why?”
“He makes his rounds in it.”
“Couldn't he just fly?”
“Well... yeah.”
“And Tess?”
“She makes deliveries.”
“In an airplane?”
“Mailbox.”
“What?”
“That's the name of her plane.”
“So the bird that can fly gets into an airplane called Mailbox to deliver things?”
“Pretty much.”
“And the woodpecker?”
“That's Otis.”
“Does he have an airplane too?”
“Of course.”
“Why of course?”
I can see this conversation getting away from me pretty quickly.
Then I'd have to explain that Otis flies Socket, an old service plane, because he's the one who fixes things.
Which would probably lead to another question.
“Why does a woodpecker fix airplanes?”
I don't know.
He just does.
Then sooner or later we'd get back around to Rodee.
“So what's a FenceBoard Flyer?”
“Rodee, Tess, and Otis.”
“No. What makes them FenceBoard Flyers?”
“They fly the planes.”
“But they're birds.”
“I know.”
“And birds can fly.”
“I know.”
“So why do they fly airplanes?”
And there we'd be.
Right back where we started.
Daggummit.
Maybe smiling and shrugging my shoulders wasn't such a bad answer after all.
But I've had a little time to think about it now.
And I guess the best answer is, they just do.