I Hope I Never Understand

Early in the novel, Riley's mom, Yara, is explaining to Riley why he can never bring an "outsider" like the pigeon Hilton into their colony to care for him when he is wounded.  She uses some faulty reasoning quite typical amongst parents who have slipped into a "that's just how it is" mentality.  Yara says he could be diseased.  Riley says he doesn't look diseased.  Yara says, Well, even if he's not, he won't leave after we've helped him.  He'll stay and be a nuisance.  Creatures like him are simply "no good."  Riley asks how she knows this.  She says, "Because that is the way it has always been" (Kiefer 15).  Well, who told her that?  And how did whomever told her that know for sure that pigeons are no good?

An important question about judgment is risen here.  Who is to judge and how are their judgments made valid?  Riley is pure hope, pure love.  He is like God, looking at a sick person, seeing the person already well.  He knows what it's like to have a disadvantage since he has been so small his life and has had to work extra hard at learning how to fly and keep up physically.  He has compassion and faith in the power of caring.

Finally Riley's mother abandons the topic by offering that rote reply so many of us receive from elders as children: "You will  understand when you are older" (Kiefer 16).  Except instead of being like, "Okay.  I guess you're right" Riley admirably mumbles, "I hope I never understand something like that" (Kiefer 16).  Brilliant!  He is recognizing a calloused heart and rejecting it as an option for himself in the future.  There are many things children DO understand and benefit from understanding when they are older--why patience is important, why there are safety precautions.  But there are other things children may never and should never understand, such as rejecting someone "just because."

           

Meditation on Friendship

Friendship is a major theme within The Calling.  As the often strained but nevertheless persistent relationship between the two main characters, Riley (a purple martin) and Hilton (a pigeon), develops within Kiefer's adorable yet gripping debut novel, a meditation on reality also develops.  The meditation is this: as a friend, where does one's loyalties lie?  How should one behave?  And why?

Riley is torn between his devotion to his family, their ideas, and their traditions, and the new urge to help an outsider in need.  His family, a clan of birds called the purple martins, is making their annual migration soon, which will be his very first migration experience.  Days before this migration, he discovers a "dirty, dangerous" (according to his family) pigeon blown in from a storm, wounded.  Conflicted between his idea of righteousness and his family's obsession with survival--with including no outsiders--he chooses to help the pigeon, Hilton.

As with all major relationships, twists and subtleties abound in the two birds' new relationship.  Starry-eyed about his good deed and newfound friendship, Riley quickly discovers the bitter aftertaste so many of us do: he was used.  He was never wanted as an individual.  Now he must decide if his decision retains value regardless of this betrayal as well as how to regard his "friend" from here out.  Is friendship dependent on another's actions or is it a devotion independent of factors beyond one's control?  Is love a choice or an exchange?