I have been thinking about turkeys a lot lately. It is not because of their impending sacrifice that will occur a week from Thursday. Instead it is because I am seeing them everywhere. In their fullest glory. You see, in the area where I live along the bluffs of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, they are running rampant. With regularity I will need to at least slow down if not come to a full stop for the parade of these enormous birds as they cross the road in front of my car. In some areas you need to watch out for deer crossing the road. We are always on the lookout for turkeys.

Over the last several weeks, every time this happens, I chuckle to myself at their dignity and forceful presence. I always think about the idea that our Founders had, if ever so briefly, considered this fine-feathered specimen as our nation’s bird. Now I really only have this fact running through my head because of numerous viewings of the musical ‘1776’ in which Benjamin Franklin and John Adams sing an argumentative song about the turkey versus the eagle. Whether this is fact or dramatic invention, we know how that argument turned out.

And yet this somewhat more humble bird that stands tall and regal in a long-necked way is a beautiful creature of flight. Its feathers are iridescent, made up of blacks, greens, blues, all sweeping together to create a jewel-like affect.Team all that color with the brilliant red wattle and you have yourself a striking vision of strength.

Now one might argue, as Benjamin and John did, that we do not want to be thought of as a nation of turkeys or as the source of one of the finest feasts. We would much rather be seen as a soaring, white-headed symbol of strength and wisdom. But I can’t help but think that the majestic turkey has gotten a bad rap over the years and that it may have started with that original argument.

One reason I have taken such joy in encountering these birds is that each time I did I thought about how our blessed nation was founded in many streams of controversy including ones as seemingly silly as choosing a national bird. One might ask, why do we need one? But the idea that those who dreamed this nation and what it might become didn’t see eye to eye any more than we do in our time. Those early leaders, brilliant people filled with passion and vision, are mirrored in our time. Sometimes we forget this or allow a cynicism that has crept into our lives to color our ability to see this. That and the ability to constantly have information about ‘who said what’ coming at us from a variety of sources.

The people of that time, the regular people like you and me, probably were not aware that two of the most brilliant men they might ever meet were arguing about turkeys versus eagles as a symbol of a nation yet to be realized. They were too busy eeking out a life on land that was still new to them. As for me, I like thinking of this odd little argument that is might be a part of our history. It makes all the really big and important differences we need to address seem doable.

Turkey? Eagle? I think we would have been just as fine with either. The good news for the turkey is, had the argument gone the other way, we might be eating something completely different as our national feast.