While I was driving on Main Street in Farmington, New Mexico recently, I found myself stuck in a traffic jam. One of the three lanes on my side of the street had been blocked off for road repair. As I sat in my car, wondering how long it would take to get to my destination, I noticed pigeons sitting all around the top of a well-known restaurant sign.
There weren't any trees nearby, so the birds took advantage of a comfortable and relatively safe place to roost. As I watched them, they took my mind off the road block. I pulled out my cell phone and snapped a couple of pictures of those industrious birds.
It made me think about all the ways we improvise when the need arises. If we can't find the thing we need, we substitute something else that often works quite well. We get creative. We use our intelligence to find other solutions. Birds and other animals do that too.
Trees would have been a more ideal place for the pigeons to roost. When trees weren't available, they found another place to perch with their friends and family.
A great conversation ice breaker might be to ask people about what different types of Christmas trees they've used in various circumstances. It could stir all kinds of interesting memories. At different times, I remember using a tumbleweed and a sesaban, also known as an Egyptian riverhemp, tree. The likely common thread among all the choices would be a willingness to improvise, a need to have a Christmas tree as part of the season's celebration.
Whatever the circumstance, we learn to get creative. We usually do it quite well. I suspect some inventions may have been developed that way. How fortunate we are as humans and other animal species to be good at finding alternative answers.