The Falcon and The Branch
Once there was a king who received a gift of two magnificent falcons. They were peregrine falcons, the most beautiful birds he had ever seen. He gave the precious birds to his head falconer to be trained.
Months passed, and one day the head falconer informed the king that though one of the falcons was flying majestically, soaring high in the sky, the other bird had not moved from its branch since the day it had arrived.
The king summoned healers and sorcerers from all the land to tend to the falcon, but no one could make the bird fly.
He presented the task to the member of his court, but the next day, the king saw through the palace window that the bird had still not moved from its perch.
Having tried everything else, the king thought to himself, “Maybe I need someone more familiar with the countryside to understand the nature of this problem.” So he cried out to his court, “Go and get a farmer.”
In the morning, the king was thrilled to see the falcon soaring high above the palace gardens. He said to his court, “Bring me the doer of this miracle.”
The court quickly located the farmer, who came and stood before the king. The king asked him, “How did you make the falcon fly?”
With his head bowed, the farmer said to the king, “It was very easy, your highness. I simply cut off the branch where the bird was sitting.”
Children, too, may never be motivated to walk if their support system is not removed at some appropriate time. Adult humans will seldom advance in education and employment if they are too comfortable in their current surroundings. Incentives are most always a necessary element of advancement in education, work as well as life in general. Whether the incentive is money, favors or some other material reward it matters not, it could even be a matter of cutting off the branch.
It is true that there are those who seem to be naturally or internally motivated. They are they who see a problem and without being asked, seem drawn to correct it, and begin to go about rectifying the problem. In some cases it even requires gathering together others to help solve the problem. There are many problems solved in simple ways for some but our insurmountable for others. Simple solutions come with very little thought to some.
For example, the great Mahatma Gandhi stepped aboard a train one day, one of his shoes slipped off and landed on the track. He was unable to retrieve it as the train was moving. To the amazement of his companions, Gandhi calmly took off his other shoe and threw it back along the track to land close to the first. Asked by a fellow passenger why he did so, Gandhi smiled. “The poor man who finds the shoes lying on the track,” he replied, “will now have a pair he can use.” For Gandhi, it was not a loss to worry or cry about, nor was it an issue he had to spend time thinking about. Why? Because Gandhi’s life was always about others, not Gandhi. It was now another’s good fortune, another who had a pair of shoes.