Are you a chicken or an eagle?
Only you can decide.
I love parables. In the past year I've read three different books where some version of the following parable appeared. Below is my version:
There's an old story about an animal expert. This expert knew every creature in the wild. One day he was out walking and he came by a farm. Out behind the farm he saw a great hoard of chickens. In the middle of all those chickens was a single, solitary eagle. Bewildered, he approached the farm and knocked on its door.
The farmer opened the door and said, “What do you want?”
“I’m an animal expert and there’s something out here I’d like you to see”
“This is my farm and I’ve seen everything there is to see.”
“So you’re aware that out in the middle of your chickens sits a single, solitary eagle?”
“You're mistaken,” the farmer said. “I’ve got no eagle, only chickens.”
“Please,” the expert said, “allow me to show you.”
Reluctantly, the farmer followed the expert out behind the farm. The expert walked over to the eagle, picked him up in his arms and said, “Listen to me. You’re an eagle. You can fly. Do you see your friends? They are all chickens. They can’t fly, but you can. Now go. Fly.”
The eagle looked up at the man and then down at his chicken brothers and sisters who were eating their chicken food and making their chicken noises. He then hopped out of the experts’ arms and rejoined his chicken family.
The farmer laughed.
“See,” he said. “I told you I don’t have any eagles.”
This confused the animal expert and he decided to leave.
The next day, while it was early and dark -- so early God Himself had yet to open his eyes -- the expert returned to the farm and knocked on the farmer’s door. This time the farmer was annoyed by the expert’s presence but again allowed him to see the chickens.
Once more, the expert took the eagle in his arms but this time he carried him up a ladder that led to the roof of the barn. The expert walked to the edge of the roof and said, “Listen to me. All your life people have treated you like a chicken. They taught you to talk like a chicken and eat like a chicken and think like a chicken. But you are not a chicken. You’re an eagle. So now, fly.”
At that precise moment the sun began to rise. The expert pointed and said, “Do you see how far away that sun is? You can go there, because you can fly. Become what you are.”
The eagle thought, I have a good life. I love my chicken food and my chicken thoughts. But this man is clearly crazy and if I don’t at least give this a try, he’ll come back here every day and drive me crazy. So, what the hell? It’s not that far a drop to the ground.
The sun grew brighter in the sky and the eagle stretched his wings, and, my friends, you have never seen anything so marvelous.
The eagle flew toward the sun, and the farmer never saw him again.