Accidental or Random Leader

(Originally posted in NTUMC68 class website December 4, 2008)

This evening on my way home after work, I saw a flock of birds, which were of at least hundred, circling above the McDonald Restaurant. They were flying together up and down, back and forth, left to right or right to left, in a rather random fashion. They maneuvered simultaneously and changed direction quickly. They did that almost at the same time. They seemed to have one leader, the accidental or random, who took the lead. I saw one of them suddenly decided to get down and rested on the top of the building. The rest all followed. Before everybody had the chance to rest on the roof, the one, perhaps the same one, took off again. And regardless of their position at the time, everybody instantly made the change and followed the leader. It was a really fascinating nature phenomenon.

One day during our recent trip to Petra , Jordan , we came to a point where there were two different paths ahead of us. Without the guidance of the tour guide, who was far way back from us, there was one person, for some reason, took the lead, either through his spontaneous instinct or simply without thinking. Without raising any doubt by anyone, everybody followed him. While we were continuing to proceed with this accidental or random leader, the tour guide shouted at us and told us to return to the right path.

Do the birds have leader? Or anyone of them, just like the one of us in Petra, can happen to be the leader, accidental or random, at any given moment.