Whatcha got?

This afternoon a pileated woodpecker visited what’s left of the suet. [Note to self: get more suet soon.] It was the first visit of the season. Woodpeckers and gazillions of black-capped chickadees at the feeders are nice signs of normalcy these days. Temperatures have warmed enough that local waters are opening again. All in all a fairly typical late autumn heading into winter in the North Country.

pileated woodpecker on suet feeder

Photo by J. Harrington

We’re three weeks away from astronomical winter and a little more than a day until the start of meteorological winter. We’re also slightly more than a month away from the end of 2021 and the start of 2022. Part of what I’m wishing for this Christmas is the insight needed to have a more satisfying and joyous year next year than this year has been. I let the COVID and the climate crisis and politics and whatever get to me more than I should. Worst of all, I really have no one to blame but myself. I keep waiting for things to get better instead of making the best I can of what I have to work with.

A few years after the many years ago that I was born, Walt Disney released a movie called So Dear to My Heart. It included a song titled It’s Whatcha Do With Whatcha Got. The lyrics to that song are today’s poem because I suspect many of you may be feeling worn thin, as I am, from one or another, after another, conundrum to deal with. That’s not the way we want to enjoy the holiday season. The words below might help, if we take them to heart.

IT'S WHATCHA DO WITH WHATCHA GOT

Gene Vincent De Paul (m) Don Raye (l) as rec by Kay Starr

It's whatcha do with whatcha got, You never mind how much you've got, It's whatcha do with what you've got That pays off in the end! You gotta add how much you do, Then multiply by what you do; You think you can't win, but you do, And you get that dividend! It's the means you apply it That raises your stock; Look what David did to Goliath With a little old hunk o' rock! It's whatcha do with whatcha got, Never mind how much you've got, It's whatcha do with what you've got That pays off in the end! It's the means you apply it That raises your stock; Look what David did to Goliath With a little old sling and a hunk o' rock! It's whatcha do with whatcha got, Never mind how much you've got, It's whatcha do with what you've got That pays off in the end! Take my advice, brother, I have been through it! It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it! Once you know how, well there ain't nothin' to it And it pays off in the end!

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