Gratitude

What will you do if you get wings?

I used to ask this question very often to folks. Not in a professional environment though, but when having casual or informal convos I tend to throw this question quite frequently. The answers I get mostly are weird, crazy, and bizarre. That is because of the ‘nature’ of the crowd I hang out with (Ikr?).

I took this photograph two years back. This is a mangrove forest in Chilaw, Sri Lanka. I went there for soil sampling and at the time I was in the lagoon, I saw this bird flying over the forest. I think it is an albatross, I was not sure. All I saw was the bird flying, freely, with no limitations all over the clear blue sky.

I was in the field with my bestfirend| research assistant | crazy pal | fiancé.

“What will you do if you have wings?” I asked him.

“What now?”

“Wings? If you get wings, what will you do?”

“Like ‘wings’ wings? Flying wings?” He waved his hand sideways pretending like a bird.

“What else wings are for? Yeah for flying. What would you do?”

“I’d have flown away the day I proposed. So I’d have never put up with sh*t. Especially this research thingy. This is exhausting”

I frowned at him

“Duh! I was kidding. You know, I love your work”. I smiled.

“So your question. Yeah if I get wings, I’d always think of escaping reality and fly into some parallel universe or other places where no one is there. I’ll be alone and maybe happy. I will come to the city whenever I want; eating at my favorite restaurants, hang out with my folks on and off and now I can fly to South Korea every weekend to see you. All of these WITHOUT SPENDING A PENNY”.

“Soo… what you are saying is you’ll live the same life with a pair of wings, right?”

“RRRRight…!”

“Why don’t you wanna fly far far away? Where nobody can see you?”

“Why? For two reasons: First, I don’t wanna be an as*hole to get back to the people I love whenever I want. Second, nothing can be changed or reversed. I don’t believe in your sci-fi fiction bullshit of me getting wings by tomorrow. So I am not going to spend more time on my response”

I looked unsatisfied. That might have disturbed him. He exhaled and told me,

“Look, you are wondering what if we get wings? Have you ever thought about what the bird thinks when they look at us?”

He gave me strong look.

“We are biologists. We know how evolution happened. We cannot reverse time. Neither are we X-men. We have our own; very own adaptations from the big brain, limbs, and thumbs to lungs and heart. We are tremendously coded complex algorithms. Still, we can’t even figure out our own sh*t. why bother wasting your time thinking about what the other species have? Just try to understand this at the moment and let’s move on. Got it?”

I was moved by his response. I may not have got my answer but I got an idea or rather a blind perspective. I stood up and said, “Aye aye, Capitain”.

He laughed.

“Though I might need extra pair of wings”, he said on the way back.

“But, Why?”

“To carry this big boy here”, he pointed at his big(gy) belly.

It cracked me up and we were laughing for a while.

I saw this birdie today on the way back to the lab during the lunch hour. I was looking at it for a while. But I have never got the usual thought; what if I get wings? Instead, I felt pride in the freedom to fly out to another country for my career, the freedom of speech, the freedom of writing, and the freedom of expressing my thoughts. I felt grateful to understand what I had, what I possess, and what I am capable of, and appreciate the real me. I know it takes time. But the sanity feeds your soul and fills your voids.

So tell me…!

Are you grateful for what you are today?

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