Ordering ducks

Get one's ducks in line

Get one's ducks in a row

Get one's ducks in order

What is it with these ducks?  I wrote recently about the title of the book "Carry the One."  But, my favorite passage was this, "She feared for someone--so very like herself at that age--who had all her ducks in order. As if there were any reliable way of ordering ducks."  In life we soon realize that getting our ducks in order might be a hopeless goal, and perhaps we are better off to let our ducks swim freely.

It also made me think about all the ways we could order ducks.  We can line them up in order, we can buy them on-line by ordering them, we can classify them into ordered categories, we can tell them what to do by ordering them around.  

I have grown weary of the phrase "herding cats" which seems to have slipped into popular usage and become a tired and vacuous phrase.  What would happen if we let our herd of cats loose on our row of ducks?  Now that might be fun.