BIRD BY BIRD

" Thirty years ago my older brother, who was    ten years old at the time, was trying to get a    report on birds written that he'd had three months to    write. It was due the next day. We were out at our    family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen    table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper    and pencils and unopened books on birds,     immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my    father sat down beside him, put his arm around my    brother's shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy.    Just take it bird by bird.'"