Swan Song & Black Swans Exposed
Myth? Legend? A World-Saving Story Unfolds...
February 26, 2023 (updated February 27, 2023 & July 16, 2023)
Sharon, VT — My thoughts turn to swans as I look forward to starting my appointment at Vermont Law & Graduate School as the incoming vice president of alumni relations & development. Why? Because the VLGS mascot is the fighting swan — an unusual, but apt, mascot for a law & graduate school of this stature. Law, after all, tends to be perceived as a profession where fighting for the rights of others is common practice. But this seems to be in direct juxtaposition to the notion of the swan as a symbol of love, transformation, compassion, purity, intelligence, beauty, and grace.
Recently, VLGS has elevated its efforts to serve communities and our world, through notions of justice, law, policy, and environmental activism. Its motto, Lex Pro Urbe et Orbe (Law for the Community and the World), suggests as much. That motto now appears to be extending itself to “Law, Justice, Policy & Advocacy for the Community and the World” (Lex, Justitia, Consilium et Patrocinium Pro Urbe et Orbe), given the school’s new strategic plan and vision to establish itself as a graduate school with many new and developing graduate-level degrees.
These degrees include: Master of Environmental Law & Policy (MELP), Master of Arts in Restorative Justice (MARJ), Master of Climate and Environmental Policy (MCEP), Master of Energy Regulation and Law (MERL), Master of Animal Protection Policy (MAPP), Master of Food and Agricultural Law and Policy (MFALP), Master of Energy Regulation and Law (MERL), and an Executive Master of Environmental Policy (EMEP), along with its flagship Juris Doctor degree and terminal LLM degrees in Environmental Law, Energy Law, Food and Agriculture Law, and American Legal Studies. Never before has our world so desperately needed advocates and policy experts trained in law, policy, restorative justice, and environmental & climate justice and policy.
Want to better your community or save the world? First stop — Vermont!
Yet, there remains this notion of the swan as a symbol of love — they mate for life — and grace, suggesting there’s far more to the notions of fighting for the legal rights of others and ‘justice for all’ that pervades the VLGS ecosystem. Here, many aspiring students come to pursue notions of social justice with aspirations of serving their communities around the globe as public servants. For example, VLGS alumnae/i, with love and determination in their hearts and the swan’s elegant grace and intellect, are empowered to fight to expose environmental issues that plague marginalized communities when industrial pollutants adversely impact our marginalized and most vulnerable neighbors at far greater rates than others.
With the swan as a symbol of transformation, VLGS faculty, students and alumnae/i work to address issues impacting our climate, our environment, and the people (and non-humans) most directly impacted by things like racial disparities in our legal system (such as this story about a VLGS alumna advocating for environmental justice in North Carolina), food system sustainability (in this story that includes boosting restaurant resilience during COVID-19 and helping Vermont farmers and food entrepreneurs save over $100,000 in legal fees annually), and also representing those with no human voice, like Happy the Elephant’s right to be transferred to an animal sanctuary.
Let’s get back to the swan as a global symbol of faithfulness, permanence, and strength — with some interesting swan facts and myths.
Swans are known to mate for life. They’re also long-lived, with some trumpeter swans living as long as 33 years. The mute swan and the tundra swan live for an average of 20 years, and the black swan of Australia & New Zealand can live to be as old as 40. A swan’s song was believed to have been the dying song of an otherwise mute swan, but that has been disproven as mere myth. A “swan song” is now a metaphorical symbol of a final act, performance, or gesture given just before death or retirement. Swans were once protected by the crown in Britain, serving as a symbol of luxury and nobility. Only people of status could once afford to have a “game” of swans sculling around a pond on their property. But, today, swans are protected in the UK by the Wildlife & Countryside Act of 1981.
And, finally, for you wordsmiths, a female swan is known as a ‘pen’, and a male swan, a ‘cob’. Immature swans, the babies, are called ‘cygnets’, hitching rides on their parents’ backs when young. The cob will sit on the nest to incubate up to eight eggs while the pen is away feeding. Parents look after their young for up to nine months.
A “black swan” event is typically associated with an unforeseen occurrence typically with disastrous consequences (such as a stock market crash). But, the black swan (found in Australia & New Zealand) is a symbol of love, romance, beauty, heaven, and purity. And, in case you were wondering, black swans do mate with white swans, with their offspring called blute swans.
A particularly interesting swan species is black-necked with a white body that is native to South America.
When it comes to the work of Vermont Law & Graduate School faculty, students and graduates, their efforts seem most akin to the call of the trumpeter swan, a species of swan that was nearly hunted to extinction in North America by the early 20th Century, but conservation efforts have facilitated its comeback. Trumpeter swan populations, once numbering fewer than 70 birds outside of Alaska, through careful reintroductions, have now rebounded to over 400,000 living in the wild in North America.
Perhaps the trumpeter swan resurgence from near-extinction symbolizes the true meaning of the VLGS school mascot. The fighting swan, metaphorically speaking, could well be us, all people, worldwide, fighting to save ourselves from being forced into extinction due to race- and class-based discrimination, and environmental and climate degradation. Like wildlife biologists who, with care, compassion and fierce determination, re-established the trumpeter swan in North America, VLGS students faculty, and alumnae/i are now serving the greater good as leaders and advocates, with grace, passion and a fierce desire to “save their own” to help all of us survive. No swan song here. This school is vibrant, alive, and dedicating itself to take bold action to change the world.
As they say at VLGS, “swans fly together.” This special breed of VLGS swan, The Fighting Swan, is ready to take us under its wing. Never before have we so keenly needed the protections of this extraordinary flock.
Dave Celone writes from Sharon, VT where geese tend to migrate north at about this time of the year. Should he ever see a swan flying overhead or landing on the pond near his house, he’ll trumpet the sighting far and wide! (By the way, a group of swans in flight is called a “wedge.”)
Thanks so much, Phyll! Some great swan pix out there. Glad you enjoyed it!
MOST INTERESTING article and photos, Dave! Loved it. Congratulations on your new position. How wonderful! So happy for you! Best wishes, and write on!