Seabirds
Wednesday January 30, 2008
Soaring fearlessly
Joan and I spent last week on the island of St. Vincent, in the far southeastern corner of the Caribbean chain. We chose it because it remains pretty much undeveloped. Most hotels have fewer than 30 rooms; beach vendors give you an extra coconut if you accidentally overpay them; there’s no international airport bringing planeloads of tourists directly from everywhere – you have to actually want to go there to get there…
We expected to spend a lazy week. We exceeded our expectations.
I spent a fair portion of each day watching a seabird circle over the over the ocean until she saw fish under the surface. Then she folded her wings and plummeted into the water like a feathered projectile, making less splash than an Olympic diver. Seconds later, she popped up again – sometimes to resume her aerial circles, sometimes to pause long enough to swallow her catch.
And I found myself envying her.
Oh, I didn’t envy the prospect of spending all day, every day, circling endlessly over the same patch of sea, hoping to consume half my weight in fish.
Rather, I envied the bird’s absence of fear. She would, of course, head for safety if a hawk or eagle neared. But she had clearly no fear of flying. She wheeled and swooped with complete confidence in her own abilities, adjusting her flight with tiny twitches of wingtip feathers.
Grounded by fear
I would love to fly. I’d love to have that sense of total control over three dimensions. But at my age, I don’t trust my reflexes that much any more. I could take flying lessons – but even if I passed, I would have a constant fear of getting into a situation where a mistake could cost not just my own life, but perhaps the lives of passengers.
We humans were not designed for flying. Only our technology enables us to exceed our natural capabilities.
And when you make a mistake in an airplane, you can’t get out and walk home.
The bird has no such fear. She cannot exceed her capabilities. Even if she makes a mistake in a tight turn, she will only fall a few feet in a flurry of feathers before she can regain her composure, spread her wings, and soar again. Natural air resistance prevents her falling faster than she can recover.
And so she soars fearlessly.
Grounded in fear
Compare that with human experience. We work like slaves for an employer we loathe, because we fear unemployment, loss of income, loss of status… Advertising implants fear to sell us cosmetics, pills, diets, dating services, household germs, dust, tutoring programs, security systems…
Politics foments fears of other parties and policies.
The entire American nation is being manipulated by fear of terrorists who may or may not exist.
Fears paralyze. We fear saying the wrong thing, wearing the wrong clothes, holding the wrong ideas. We fear relationships that go sour; we may even fear relationships that could grow too close.
Perhaps, if we could banish some of our fears, we too could soar effortlessly.
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Copyright © 2007 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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