We all start off bright and shiny!  Our new scales glittering in the sunshine, bedazzling and bewitching all onlookers.  But life gradually takes its toll; our scales fall off, bits of our wings get pecked out and our bodies get worn down.  But we carry on flying and flitting about in the sunshine until that great bird in the sky swoops down and swallows us in a great gulp!  Amen.