A traveler from India went to Africa to acquire some local products and animals, and while in the jungle, he saw thousands of beautiful multicolored talking parrots. So he decided to capture a talking parrot and take it back as a pet.
At home, he kept his parrot in a cage and fed him wonderful seeds and honey, played music for his pet, and generally treated him well. When it was time for the man to return to Africa 2 years later, he asked his parrot to deliver any message he could deliver to the parrot’s friends back in the jungle. The parrot told his master to say that he was pleased in his cage and that he was enjoying each day and conveyed his love.
When the traveler arrived back in Africa, he delivered the message to the parrots in the jungle. But, unfortunately, just as he finished his story, a parrot with tears welling up in his eyes fell over dead. The man was alarmed and decided that the parrot must have been very close to the parrot in the cage, which was the reason for his sadness and demise.
When the traveler returned to India, he told his pet what had happened. As he finished his story, the pet parrot’s eyes welled up with tears, and he keeled over dead in his cage. The man was astounded but figured that his pet died from the despair of hearing of the death of his close friend back in the jungle.
The trader opened up the cage and tossed the dead bird outside onto the trash heap. Immediately his pet parrot flew up to a branch on the tree outside.
The trader said to him, “So, you are not dead after all. Why did you do that?”
The parrot answered, “Because that bird back in Africa sent me a crucial message.”
“What was the message?” the trader inquired impatiently.
“He told me that if you want to escape from your cage, you must die while you are alive.”
What does this mean to me?
Think about how we all choose to live our lives. What decisions do we make every day? Are we pursuing those things that matter in life?
Our time here on this planet is short. People in their final moments often chronicle a list of regrets or failed opportunities—many of which stem from working too hard, not spending enough time with loved ones, emphasizing acquiring material possessions, and not expressing their true feelings to those who matter.
Regrets are a call to take action. Why wait for the right time, since that moment may never arrive?
Thought-Provoking Articles:
“Worldwide Freedom Rally” – Coverage of yesterday’s protests in dozens of cities worldwide from OffGuardian.
AN HARLEM AFTER HOURS SPOT 1981 - #BEFOREHIPHOP
“No vax, no vote? Macron’s vaccine passport plan sparks fury” – Will French voters have to prove that they have been vaccinated to vote?
The End of "Cancel Culture"? - Young Americans may return us to a culture of compassion and forgiveness.
“Laurence Fox: ‘We are in the early days of tyranny” – A warning
The Pollyanna Principals - How one consultancy capitalized on New York prep schools’ mad fad for “anti-racism.”
“Do You Feel Free?” – From Bournbrook’s ‘Week in Review’ podcast, Michael Curzon discusses the ‘pingdemic
Something Interesting:
I checked out this movie last night. It was rather clever and funny at times. I wasn’t expecting the ending. What cliffhanger!
Clayton Craddock is a father, independent thinker, and the founder and publisher of the social and political commentary newsletter Think Things Through and host of the Think Things Through Podcast.
Follow him on Instagram, Twitter or read more on his website: claytoncraddock.com
'working too hard, not spending enough time with loved ones, emphasizing acquiring material possessions, and not expressing their true feelings to those who matter'
It may not even be possible for me to express how moot these points are to me.
Nobody could ever accuse me of working too hard, for one thing. I prefer getting things done for the sake of being done with them. I would have preferred that my time spent with loved ones could have been committed at least in part to our getting things done together to make the work less hard for each of us, but it turns out they all had other things to do, mostly building their own cages packed with material possessions and barred by the perennial debts and obligations they must work too hard at servicing in order to keep their cages intact.
Expressing my truest feelings to my loved ones, much as I might want them to matter and for me to matter to them, would mean that I would be telling them how impossible it always was for me to live in a cage, and that I wish even one or two of them might take that seriously enough about me to pitch in and work together on not having to live in captivity any more.
But people prefer their cages. I guess.
It's about choices. We can also come to our end thinking about all the love and beauty we have seen and felt, hoping we have passed some of that on to others.
What I wonder is why the man thought it was a good idea to take a bird that lived in the wild and keep him in a cage. How would he have felt if he was the diminutive person in a Twilight Zone episode who was taken by a seeming giant and kept in a doll house for his amusement?