Learning To Fly

 As he cut the chains away from the bird's wings, the young man said, "I've freed you.  You're free now.  Aren't you grateful I've freed you?  Fly away now.  Show everyone how well you can fly."

The bird blinked and moved and raised his head to the new sun.  His wings, puny and shrunken and atrophied, never used, feathers worn away from where the chains bound him.  He stretched his neck and stretched his legs toward the new sun, but these wings didn't work or look or move like the man who freed him, and when he dared leap into the air, these wings couldn't bear him.

"I told you so."  Said the old man.  "They ain't like us.  They ain't made for flyin'.  Can't you see how he's struggling to try?  You wasted your time cutting the chains away.  They were better off the way they were."

The young man said, "Come on, little bird.  Show them you can fly.  I told everyone you could fly.  Don't make me look foolish.  Please, little bird, won't you fly?"

"I couldn't fly either, at first."  Said the child.  "I had no feathers, and you couldn't even tell my wings were more than just useless stubs on my side, but with love and patience, and time, I learned to fly.  This little bird isn't so different from me.  He'll be my friend, and we'll fly together."

"You're wasting your time!"  Said the old man.  "They're no good.  They never were any good, and they'll never fly!'

"Everyone is good," The child said.  "It's my time to waste.  You made your choices in life.  This is mine.  You may be right.  You may be wrong.  But, I'm going to find out for myself what is right and what is wrong because I'm not taking the word of a man who puts birds in chains."