Mozart felt this, I know. Like me, he was drawn at first to the shiny thing —in his case it was Star’s singing back to him the song he himself had written. But in his elegy poem we see that a different relationship evolved. The bird’s mimicry is not once mentioned. This is a poem to a kindred creature whose presence brought play, sound, song, joy, and friendliness to the maestro’s life. And in the work that Star inspired, this is what we see too. A shared sense of mischief, music, and delight. The word kinship comes from Old English—of the same kind, and therefore related. Kindly and kindness
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“Mozart felt this, I know. Like me, he was drawn at first to the shiny thing —in his case it was Star’s singing back to him the song he himself had written. But in his elegy poem we see that a different relationship evolved. The bird’s mimicry is not once mentioned. This is a poem to a kindred creature whose presence brought play, sound, song, joy, and friendliness to the maestro’s life. And in the work that Star inspired, this is what we see too. A shared sense of mischief, music, and delight. The word kinship comes from Old English—of the same kind, and therefore related. Kindly and kindness also grow from this root—the bearing toward others that kinship inspires.”
