A man once found an eagle’s
egg
And put it in the nest of a barnyard chicken.
The eagle hatched and grew up with the rest
Of a brood of chicks and thought
He didn’t look at all the same.
He scratched the earth for worms and bugs
And played a chicken’s game.
The eagle clicked and cackled, he made a chicken’s
sound.
He thrashed his wings, but only flew a few feet off the ground.
That’s high as chickens fly, the eagle had been told.
The years passed and one day when the eagle was quite old
He saw something magnificent flying very high
Making great majestic circles up there in the sky
He’d never seen the likes of it. “What’s that?” he asked in awe,
while he watched in wonder and amazement at the grace
And beauty that he saw.
“Why that’s an eagle,” someone said. He belongs up there. It’s clear.
Just as we-- since we are
chickens-- belong earthbound down here.”
The old eagle just accepted
that-- most everybody does.
And he lived and died a chicken, for that’s what he thought he
was.
-- written by Charles
Osgood