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> The Little Sparrow’s Small Happiness
By sedron | October 28, 2007
According to mythical legend, there lived the great Peng Bird that could soar at a height of 9000 miles.
The little sparrow laughed: “Ha, ha…look at that guy. What’s he doing, wasting so much energy to fly so high? My life is so easy. If I want to sing, I just buzz up to a branch. If I want to eat a worm, I flutter down to the ground and I couldn’t be more carefree.”
There are differences between the realms of the sparrow and the Peng Bird, between how they fly and what they know. We shouldn’t laugh at the little sparrow in its small, self-contained world; nor should we envy the great Peng Bird in its grandeur.
PS. Of course the mythical creature Peng Bird doesn’t really exist as an animal, today or thousands of years ago. It is a metaphor and not a literal description. Its meaning is left to you to decipher.
湯之問棘也是已。窮髮之北有冥海者，天池也。有魚焉，其廣數千里，未有知其脩者，其名為鯤。有鳥焉，其名為鵬，背若泰山，翼若垂天之雲，摶扶搖羊角而上者九萬里，絕雲氣，負青天，然後圖南，且適南冥也。斥鴳笑之曰：「彼且奚適也？我騰躍而上，不過數仞而下，翱翔蓬蒿之間，此亦飛之至也，而彼且奚適也？」此小大之辯也。
Topics: Reader's Digest |