Let's Hear It For Augury

Yesterday afternoon a very large bird perched in the tree in my front yard. Actually, the tree's between the sidewalk and the street, and so city property, but in the warm seasons I mow that strip of land as if it were mine. Anyway, I can see most of the tree from my office window. One moment, I was attending to a computer screen. The next, I spotted this unusually large figure way up, nearly beyond my view.

I puzzled for a moment, and angled for a better view. It was still hard to tell, from inside, what it was, but it seemed bigger than a hawk. A bald eagle? That seemed hard to believe. It looked like it might be one, but I had to get a better look.

By the time I got my shoes on and when out into the front yard, it was gone. I had to check, and it turns out that a bald eagle siting in my yard is possible -- some of those sightings are very close -- though I always though that they stayed away from such large agglomerations of people as the suburbs hereabout. Maybe some of them have gotten used to it here: suburban eagles.

Naturally, this got me to thinking about augury. (What, that's not the first thing that comes to mind for most people?) If augury were good enough for the Romans, should it be good enough for us? Why not? Lots of people still believe the relative motion of the planets somehow or other affects their lives -- a good many Romans certainly held to that -- so why not the relative motion of birds as a predictor of the future?

Augury's just as pliable and vague as astrology, too. What could it mean that an eagle -- let's assume it was an eagle -- came to my front yard on the third anniversary of my self-employment? That my career is going to soar with the thermals! Or that my career is going to be like a helpless rabbit in the claws of the majestic bird.

Not that anyone ever tries to convince me of the merits of astrology, but if it does happen, I have something pithy to say. "I'm all for the wisdom of the Ancients, and I think augury is just as valid, too. It's been sadly neglected in our time."