The sheep is feeding on a grassy verge on the edge of a tall cliff. Suddenly the ground crumbles away beneath him. Three feet are on solid ground, but one paddles the air. A sense of shock and vertigo penetrates his limbs. This is a totally different world beyond -- one to which he isn't well adapted at all. Pondering this reality, he is swept suddenly off his feet by an opportunistic eagle. The world is totally different from any he's experienced before. A mile up, there's no sense of land, nor of any reprieve. It's wonderful and startling. He can do nothing but accept his fate, the eagle soaring up above him, he the prey within its grasp. They soar in solitary heights for more than five minutes. It seems the sheep has found a new home, up in the shattering blue sky. Just as he has started to accept this, his feet find land. The eagle places him gingerly back on the edge of the cliff. Back on familiar green land, he continues to eat the turf.
The sheep has become a shaman. The startling experience when he was feeling as if he was not himself -- for sheep don't fly -- has turned out to be the memory of freedom of flying that defines him. Gingerly he treads the turf, as the distant memory of flight recedes. But it does not recede completely. The sheep knows deep down within the recesses of his soul that he is both the eagle and himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment