Some years ago, I had occasion to visit a friend in Vancouver in Canada. It did not take me long to become enamoured of her pet parrot, Kiki, an African Grey. Kiki’s previous owner had not taken pains to “socialise” him. So, he remained somewhat suspicious of strangers and seldom allowed anyone to touch him.
In my excessive confidence, I tried to touch his head. Kiki promptly bit my finger and all but drew blood. I might add that a parrot’s bite can be quite painful.
On a subsequent visit, I was careful not to put my finger inside Kiki’s cage but contented myself with talking to him in soft tones. Just then, I went into a paroxysm of coughing. My hostess made me a cup of tea. As I sat sipping the welcome brew, I distinctly heard a cough from the other side of the room. It developed into a paroxysm exactly the same as the one that I had experienced!
My friend and I glanced at Kiki, and I burst out laughing in appreciation. African Grey parrots are well-known for their intelligence and ability to learn words as well as mimic the sounds that they hear. Another activity of Kiki’s was to tear sheets of newspaper into long narrow strips and line the floor of his cage with them. The cage door was often left open, and Kiki was free to come and go as he pleased.
This intrigued me. Kikki did not read newspapers, but at least he made some “use” of them and kept himself occupied. When life is lived at a frenzied pace, people are engaged mostly in tearing it into strips of paper and throwing these around. If we work to earn a livelihood, time is in short supply--even like most of our other dwindling resources. We have to fight to create a small space for leisure or relaxation. At the other end of the spectrum, many people in my present neighbourhood are engaged in doing precisely nothing.
When I leave for work in the morning, I come upon them grouped around on the pavements: drinking tea, smoking cigarettes, and talking.
Why, they are not even tearing spare-time into strips of paper! These are the “lotus-eaters” who, it would seem, have specialised in doing nothing. Which lifestyle is a cage, and is the door open?
