A 7MS Christmas Tradition. A story by an unnamed author titled The Man and the Birds.
Art by Pete Whitehead
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Story performed by: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Original Art: Pete Whitehead
Music Contributor: thomas j. duke
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
Hey, everybody out there. It's Aaron. I want to wish you, your family, your loved ones, a very Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Whatever you celebrate, even if you just spend time with your family or friends, this time of year is very special. I really believe in the magic that exists during the holiday season. If you've listened to this podcast for any length of time, you know that. And that's why for this Christmas episode of 7MS, I'm sharing a story that we've shared before. It's called The Man and the Birds.
But I wanted to give you some context because my intention isn't just to make this a rerun or a filler episode. I actually want to start a tradition between you and I. See, every Christmas Eve as I'm going to sleep, I got my earbuds in and I listen to this story, The Man and the Birds, originally broadcast by the great Paul Harvey. Funny thing is, Paul Harvey didn't write this story. He came upon the story and they've never been able to find who the author is. It's anonymous.
It's like this gift from the great unknown.
So as I started 7 Minute Stories, I decided to record and share my version of Man and the Birds. It's one of, if not my favorite Christmas story of all time. And so what I figured we'd do, and maybe we don't do it every year but let's give it a shot. Maybe every holiday season, I share The Man and the Birds with you all, and we make this a tradition that we can count on. And maybe we experiment and have fun with it. Maybe I record a new version.
Maybe I have friends record their version of it, or maybe we get a celebrity guest to record their version of it.
But either way, each year I can share a version of this story with you, and we can create our own holiday tradition. What do you say? Anyways, let's give it a shot. Before we get to the story, just a reminder: we have one week off after this episode for Christmas and celebrating New Year's. And then, we're back with new episodes in the year 2022, which sounds like a science fiction movie, but it's our reality. Have a great holiday season and we'll see you on the other side.
The man to whom I'm going to introduce you was not a scrooge. He was a kind, decent, mostly good man, generous to his family, upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn't believe all that incarnation stuff, which the church proclaims as Christmas time. It just didn't make sense, and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He couldn't swallow the Jesus story about God coming to Earth as a man.
"I'm truly sorry to distress you," he told his wife, "but I'm not going with you to church this Christmas Eve." He said he'd feel like a hypocrite, that he'd much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed, and they went to the midnight service. Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall, and he went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier. And then, went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper.
Minutes later he was startled by a thudding sound, then another, and then another sort of a thump or a thud. And at first, he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window. But when he went to the front door to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They'd been caught in a storm and in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large landscape window. Well, he couldn't let the poor creatures lie there and freeze.
So he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter if he could direct the birds to it. Quickly he put on his coat, his galoshes, and tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on the light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them. So he hurried back to the house, fetched breadcrumbs and sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow lighted, wide-open doorway of the stable.
But to his dismay, the birds ignored the breadcrumbs and continued to flap around hopelessly in the snow. He tried catching them. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them and waving his arms. Instead, they scattered in every direction except into the warm lighted barn. And then, he realized that they were afraid of him. "To them," he reasoned, "I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know they can trust me, that I'm not trying to hurt them but to help them."
But how? Because any move he made tended to frighten them, confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him. "If only I could be a bird," he thought to himself, "and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. I could show them the way to safety, to the warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see and hear and understand." At that moment the church bells began to ring.
The sound reached his ears above the sound of the wind, and he stood there listening to the bells, Adestes Fidelis, listening to the bells peeling, glad tidings of Christmas, and he sank to his knees in the snow. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato. Audio production by Ken Wendt. You can connect with Ken or inquire about his audio production services at media216.com. Original artwork by Pete Whitehead. Find out more about Pete's work at petewhitehead.com. Our creative consultant is Anthony Vorndran and Lennon Janovac is our production assistant. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts. And lastly, I'm Cori Birce. Make sure you tune in next week for another story.
Today's episode of 7 Minute Stories is made possible by Fishbowl. Now, I started using Fishbowl because I asked myself this question: is there an app for professionals that doesn't feel gross, that doesn't feel like Facebook or LinkedIn? Is there something that provides a safe space where you can get the inside scoop on companies you actually want to work for, where you have the ability to post anonymously, where you can get referrals, and where you can just authentically network with other professionals? Is that too much to ask?
Well, it's not because, as I found out, that's exactly what Fishbowl provides. They also have free live audio talks and Q&A's with industry experts. I know this because I do live talks about storytelling and podcasting on the app. And if you're interested in hearing those, Cori and I will be announcing my upcoming dates on this podcast in the future. Fishbowl is available for both iPhone and Android. So search your app store and download the free app today.
