The King of Birds
(or giants raised by pygmies)
Once upon a time, a farmer found an egg. He didn’t really know what kind of egg it was but it was an eagle’s egg. Not knowing exactly what it was, but interested to find out, he placed it in the nest of a barnyard chicken. His thinking was it could possibly be hatched. The egg hatched and an eaglet appeared with the brood of chicks. Being with the brood of chickens, it naturally grew up with them.
The eagle spends all its life doing what the barnyard chickens did. Quite simply, it thought it was a barnyard chicken. It scratched the earth for worms and insects. It ran for feed offered by the farmer. It clucked and cackled like a chicken. It thrashed its wings and flew only a few feet in the air. It did just what the chickens did.
As time passed, the eaglet, quite unaccountably and illogically began to experience a longing to fly. So it would say to its mother hen, “When shall I learn to fly?”
The poor mother hen was quite aware of the fact that she could not fly. In fact, it hadn’t the slightest notion of what other birds did to train their fledglings to fly. Yet, nothing really needed to be taught. All that was really needed was to push the eaglet out of its nest. The mother hen was embarrassed to confess the inadequacy that she herself could not fly nor did she understand how to teach another to fly. So she would say, “Not yet my child, not yet. I will teach you when you are ready. The eaglet believed the mother hen. She was correct about so many things in life, why should he doubt her?
Months passed. The young eagle began to suspect that its mother did not know how to fly. But the young eagle could not figure out how to break free and fly on its own. Although it had a deep longing to fly had become confused. It has become confused with the gratitude it experienced toward the hen that had hatched it and the need to break away and leave her behind.
Years passed. The eagle grew very old. One day the eagle saw a magnificent bird above him gliding gracefully in the cloudless sky. It flew majestically within the powerful wind currents and rarely beat its strong golden wings.
The old eagle looked up in amazement and in awe. “What is that?” the eaglet asked. A reply came from its neighbor: “That’s the eagle, the king of birds. The eagle belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth. We’re chickens.” So the old eagle lived and died a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was. And with him died his deep longing to fly and to be only what he really was, an eagle.
The eagle spends all its life doing what the barnyard chickens did. Quite simply, it thought it was a barnyard chicken. It scratched the earth for worms and insects. It ran for feed offered by the farmer. It clucked and cackled like a chicken. It thrashed its wings and flew only a few feet in the air. It did just what the chickens did.
As time passed, the eaglet, quite unaccountably and illogically began to experience a longing to fly. So it would say to its mother hen, “When shall I learn to fly?”
The poor mother hen was quite aware of the fact that she could not fly. In fact, it hadn’t the slightest notion of what other birds did to train their fledglings to fly. Yet, nothing really needed to be taught. All that was really needed was to push the eaglet out of its nest. The mother hen was embarrassed to confess the inadequacy that she herself could not fly nor did she understand how to teach another to fly. So she would say, “Not yet my child, not yet. I will teach you when you are ready. The eaglet believed the mother hen. She was correct about so many things in life, why should he doubt her?
Months passed. The young eagle began to suspect that its mother did not know how to fly. But the young eagle could not figure out how to break free and fly on its own. Although it had a deep longing to fly had become confused. It has become confused with the gratitude it experienced toward the hen that had hatched it and the need to break away and leave her behind.
Years passed. The eagle grew very old. One day the eagle saw a magnificent bird above him gliding gracefully in the cloudless sky. It flew majestically within the powerful wind currents and rarely beat its strong golden wings.
The old eagle looked up in amazement and in awe. “What is that?” the eaglet asked. A reply came from its neighbor: “That’s the eagle, the king of birds. The eagle belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth. We’re chickens.” So the old eagle lived and died a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was. And with him died his deep longing to fly and to be only what he really was, an eagle.
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