Judgement Day

I came across this story whilegoing through Kahlil Gibran’s The Wanderer.

A skylark and an eagle met on a rock upon a high hill.

The skylark said, “Good morning to you Sir”. The eagle looked down upon him and said faintly, ” Good morning.”

The skylark said, “I hope all things are well with you, Sir.”

“All is well with us. But do you not know that we are the king of birds and that you shall not address us before we ourselves have spoken?” said the eagle.

” I think we are of the same family, ” said the skylark.

The eagle looked upon him with disdain and said, ” Who has said that you and I are of the same family?”

” But I would remind you of this, I can fly as high as you and I can sing and give delight to the other creatures of this earth. You give neither pleasure nor delight.”

The eagle was angered. ” You little presumptuous creature! With one thrust of my beak I could destroy you. You are but the size of my foot.”

The skylark flew up and alighted upon the back of the eagle and began to pick at his feathers. The eagle was annoyed, he flew high and swift that he might rid himself of the little bird. 

But he failed to do so.

At that moment a small turtle came by and laughed at the sight and laughed so hard that she almost turned upon her back.

The eagle looked down upon the turtle and said, “You slow creeping thing, ever one with earth, what are you laughing at?”

” Why I see that you are turned horse and that you have a small bird riding you, but the small bird is the better bird.”

The eagle said to her, ” Mind your own business. This is a family affair between my brother, the lark and myself.”

The eagle had to swallow his pride and give up on his prejudice. He had become biased due to his false pride and at the end was made to accept that all birds belong to the same family.

The world would be such a peaceful and harmonious place if we could give up our pride as well as our vanity and see everyone as one.

   If we judge others we will also be judged.