The Eagle's Eye and The Tiger's Heart

We are meant to be free.  That's all there is to it.  We are meant to live and explore and see and rejoice and imagine and shatter illusions.  We are meant to be with others or spend some time alone. We are meant to eat the finest manna and breathe the freshest air.  We are meant to swim with dolphins and whales and understand what they are talking about.  What they are trying to tell us.

The sheer image of a tiger in a cage or an eagle with diminished wings--is it not enough to break a thousand hearts.  And mine is ready to be healed.  Can we not see the wings of the Eagle?  Can we not and feel the heart of the tiger.  I see them.  And I feel them because they are mine.  

I am looking for the alliance today.  I am listening for the voice of the ancestors.  I am looking for the comrades of the universe.  Those who have shed tears or made plans on behalf of wings and hearts.  And yes they are ours.  The majesty and the passion.  The vision and the soul.  This is our majesty and passion.  It is our vision and soul crying out from that quiet place that can never be silenced.  

Do we not know?  Do we not understand? The tiger accepts the cage only to show us that he does not belong there?  And neither do we.  The eagle cries to us from the sky, calling us to wake up and join her.

Won't you help me?  Won't you remember your brothers and sisters who are standing just beyond the waterfall?  Waiting for that last full dose of sunlight.  Yearning to be reborn into that fuller, brighter splendor.

I know that I am free.  What else could I be?  Surely I have the heart of a tiger.  And maybe something beyond even that.  Something that will somehow allow me to return the blessing in some way. To thank and honor those who have roared my spirit back to consciousness when the sounds of the sand dull the ears.  

The tiger is roaring this morning.  I hear it.   It is not the roar of a tiger in a cage.  It is the roar of a tiger that could never be caged--not with a thousand chains.  Can we not hear it?  Listen with your heart! He is calling to the ancestors.  Calling to the comrades of the universe.  Roaring without compromise and reminding us that those wings were never really burnt away.

Say a prayer today.  Say a prayer for the tiger, who misses the jungle.  Say a prayer for the eagle who is watching closely.  Say a prayer for the dolphin who agrees to give up the ocean so that we can move an inch closer to understanding.  Say a prayer for the angels who walk among us and for the men and women who are loving us back to consciousness.  Say a prayer for you and me that our hearts and minds would break free from the illusions, and that our souls would shine forth in the unbounded ways in which all Creation was meant to shine.

Divergent

My daughter is an avid reader.  She went through a stretch where it seemed she was reading three or four books at the same time.  For a stretch, it was mostly dystopian fiction.  (I never pronounce that word correctly.) Each of those stories told some story about how earth or another earth-like planet had morphed into some kind of utopian world gone wrong.

One of these books was entitled, Divergent. (I see that the story is now a major motion picture coming to a theatre near you.)  Divergent tells the story of a futuristic society that is essentially divided up into five groups of people, each focused and dedicated to one of five specific virtues or areas of expertise.  Here is the Wiki summary: This story takes place in the city of Chicago in the near future. The city is divided into 5 factions: Abnegation, meant for the selfless; Amity, meant for the peaceful; Candor, meant for the honest; Dauntless, meant for the brave; and Erudite, meant for the knowledgeable. On a given day each year, all sixteen-year-olds take an aptitude test that will tell them for which faction they are best suited. After receiving the results of their test, they must decide whether to remain with their family or transfer to a new faction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divergent_(novel)

You might notice that the term, "Divergent," is not one of the five factions or virtues.  And, indeed, that is precisely what happens.  The main character has strong indicators in more than one area.  An interesting development, yes?  In a world so meticulously divided, what happens if a some one does not really fit cleanly into one specific category?

Divergent raises other questions as well.  For example, which is preferable? To be supremely adept in a single virtue or to be solid or above average across several?  And, more subtly, what might be the purpose of even having a society like that, a society that makes it a point to categorize people like that?  One might argue that this is simply "natural." That this is what is happening all the time anyway.  Humans historically setting up their camps and fencing off their neighbors, and often for much less civilized reasons. So why not streamline the process and simply tighten up the focus, and allow these natural tendencies to take hold according to some kind of science?

As you might have gathered, I am a little cool on overly managed worlds.  I am not a big fan of fences.  And even though there are some folks that I might just as soon leave to some mono-thematic rigor, I just can't bring myself to like the idea of perfection through labeling and division.  (Ironically, my daughter's most recent reading was Romeo and Juliet.)  I just like lots of different things?

In a world of excellence through division, I think I'll take divergent. Granted, it might take a little longer to cover the coursework and mastering more than one virtue is certainly a tall (and maybe even vane) order.  I just don't want to have to choose between things like knowledge and peace?  

Besides, don't we need at least a few renaissance folks, to serve as translators or something?