Sitting comfortably with a friend in two ancient chairs by the window at The Fox & Hounds in the Berkshire village of Theale, waiting for the rain to stop in order that we might continue with our plans of having a look at the waterfowl on Hosehill Lake, my friend casually declared “That’s the second time they’ve been up there.”
“The second time who has been up where?” I inquired.
“Those three young people; at the bar. They’re searching through the RSPB’s box of pin badges for one they don’t have yet. It’s just like you said yesterday – nature conservation is part of the society here.”
So I had – and, as was playing out in perfect example before us, so it was.
As we sat and watched the two teen-aged girls and their younger brother – perhaps ten or eleven years of age – sift through the small, colorful cards, each bearing a different clutch back pin depicting one of the many species of birds, insect, mammal or flower to be found in the United Kingdom, I noticed that they weren’t just looking for one that they fancied; they knew each of the species by name. “There’s a Dormouse” said one of the girls. “I’ve already got a Dormouse” replied her brother. “O! Little Egret!” he suddenly exclaimed, calling out the discovery of one he appeared to not yet have in his collection.
Eventually, each found a pin badge and one by one, deposited a one pound coin into the slot attached to the back section of the box containing the badges, and went back to the table at which their parents were seated.
As a long-time collector of the RSPB’s pin badge program, I knew how the program worked. I knew that it had raised millions of pounds to support the organization’s seemingly countless number of conservation and education programs as well as their superbly maintained nature reserves. But this was the first time I had ever seen people using one of the pin badge boxes. In that one brief moment, everything I have long said about how the awareness of nature and support for its conservation is deeply ingrained in in the society of the United Kingdom to a level that I have not found in any other society.
So, not wanting to be left out, I rose from my chair, walked over to the bar, and had a look into the assorted pin badges for myself. After a bit of searching, I finally decided upon a Cinnabar Moth. Reaching into my pocked, I took out a one pound coin and dropped it into the slot, hearing it strike many others as it came to rest inside the box. And with that one simple act, I found myself feeling that I had not so much contributed a pound to a worthy cause, but that I had participated in a great tradition.
