sky to heaven - the invisible life.

“What’s the most vivid picture in this poem?”
“The fainting robin.”
“Where are you and the robin?”
“In a forest.”
“Ok, let’s start there.”

“So you’re walking in the forest. You see the fainted robin on the ground. It fell out of its nest for an unknown reason. What do you do?”
“I don’t know. Maybe help it, I guess.”
“Is that the only thing you can do?”
“No. I can just keep walking on my way.”
“Okay, let’s imagine that you see the robin on the ground and continue on your way. What might happen to the robin?”
“It might get eaten by other animals.”
“That’s what I think, too. Imagine that the next day you walk by the same place. You see the bones of the robin. How do you feel?”
“Ummm… probably guilty and sad.”
“Why?”
“Because I could have helped the robin, but I didn’t. I would feel that the robin died because of me.”
“But you didn’t actually kill the robin. You didn’t hit it, hurt it, or cause it to die. So why do you feel guilty?”
“Because I still feel that I could have done something, but I didn’t. So to me, it’s the same as if I’d killed it.”
“Hmmm…. interesting.”

“Now, let’s imagine that you’re an ant. You see the fainted robin on the ground. The next day, you see the robin’s bones. Would you also feel sad?”
“Yes.”
“As sad as if you were the person who didn’t help the robin?”
“No.”
“Would you feel guilty?”
“No.”
“So then what’s the difference between the person and the ant?”
“The person has the power to save the robin, but the ant doesn’t.”
“That’s a good insight! So power is pretty important here.”
“I guess so, yes.”

“Now, let’s imagine that you help the robin. The next day you walk by and you see the robin is alive. How do you feel?”
“Happy.”
“Why?”
“Because the robin is alive.”
“Why do you feel happy because the robin is alive? You gained neither money nor love, or any other kind of reward. Let’s say the robin does not even know you saved it. Would you still feel happy?”
“Yes, I’d still feel happy because I helped it to live. Maybe the robin had chicks, and the chicks would probably have died if the robin had died. So now they can live, too. That’s why I’d feel happy.”
“But usually people are happy when they gain something. But you gained nothing. The robin gained another chance to live, but you didn’t seem to have gained anything. So why would you feel happy?”
“I feel happy because I did a good thing. Because helping the robin to live is a good thing.”
“Hmmm… so it actually seems possible to be happy - even though we seemed to have gained nothing.”
“I guess so, yes.”
“Why does doing a good thing make you happy?”
“I don’t know.”
“So you feel happy about yourself when you do a good thing?”
“Yes.”
“Do you feel you are valuable?”
“Yes.”
“Valuable to the robin?”
“Yes.”
“Valuable to other people?”
“Yes, probably.”
“Maybe that’s one reason why the writer says, ‘I shall not live in vain.’ Maybe action can produce value - even though we normally think that we gain value by gaining ‘valuable’ things.”

“Let’s imagine this situation from the robin’s point of view. You are a robin, and you have fainted onto the ground. You lie there unconscious and helpless. Do you wish to be helped back into your nest?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to live, and I’m afraid that I might get eaten by other animals.”
“Well, let’s say you are helped back into your nest, and later you found out that you were helped by a human being. How would you feel?”
“Extremely grateful.”
“Let’s say you find out the identity of the person who saved you. You fly over to see this person. But another person is pointing a gun at your savior. Would you want to help the person who saved you?”
“Yes.”
“Would you try to help?”
“Yes.”
“That’s very courageous of you. How would you help? Remember, you are just a bird, and the person is a person, and he has a gun.”
“Maybe I would try pecking his eyes out.”
“That’s a good idea. Anything else?”
“Hmmm….”
“Well, you could also try flying in circles around his head to distract him. You could also just fly around in the air squawking to get his attention or to cry for help. And maybe any of these things would be enough time and distraction to allow the person who saved you to run away.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“So you would risk your life trying to help the person who saved you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you feel you have power in this situation? Even though you are just a bird against a person with a gun?”
“Yes, I feel I have power.”

“Let’s go back to the point before you were helped, and even before you fainted. You are a robin, and you have never met any people before. Would you feel you had any power in relation to people?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because I am only a bird, and a person is so much bigger than me!”
“But now you see a person with a gun, and you feel you have power?”
“Yes.”
“Would you rather be a robin who feels he has power, or feel like a robin who has no power?”
“I’d rather feel like the robin who has power.”
“Where does this power come from? Why do you think you have power now, but not before?”
“I don’t really understand.”

“That’s okay. Let’s go back to how you felt about the person who saved you. You said you felt grateful. Do you feel anything else?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well… would you want to meet and get to know the person who saved you?”
“Yes.”
“Would you like this person?”
“Yes, probably.”
“Would you care about this person?”
“Yes.”
“So if you were given the opportunity to know this person and become friends, would you be glad?”
“Yes.”
“Would the way you feel towards this person be like a kind of love?”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“Is this love to you a good thing or a bad thing in your life?”
“A good thing.”
“Do you think that there is any relationship between this love and the power that we talked about before?”
“Yes, maybe.”
“I mean, let’s imagine that you never fainted, and so you were never helped by any person. And one day you were flying around, and you saw one person holding a gun and pointing it at another person. Would you feel you have power?”
“No.”
“But a person saves you, and you feel a kind of love or caring for this person, and then another person tries to kill the one who saved you, and you feel you have power?”
“Yes.”
“Then maybe you feel you have power because you have love. Maybe love is the source of your courage and your power.”
“Yes, maybe.”
“Does the love feel like duty or responsibility?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, do you feel you have to help the person because you have to?”
“No. I want to help the person because I want to.”

“So knowing all this now, do you think the robin feels that fainting on the ground was a bad thing? If the robin is helped back to its nest, and not eaten by animals.”
“No, probably not. Fainting on the ground wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, because being saved was a good thing. And becoming friends with the person is also a good thing.”
“Yes, sometimes bad things lead to good things – and vice versa. Now do you also know why you might feel happy when you do a good thing?”
“Yes - because I am the reason the robin lives. I had the power to help it live or let it die, and because of me, it lived.”
“And if you don’t help the robin?”
“Then I’ll feel bad – especially if I find out later that it died.”
“So let’s go back to where we started: there’s a fainted robin on the ground. You have a choice. What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to help the robin.”
“You sound much surer about that compared to when we started! To help or not to help. That’s the choice, right?”
“Yes, I suppose so.”
“Does it feel like a choice anymore?”
“No, not really.”
“That’s right – on the surface of life we often appear to have a lot of choices. But sometimes, there appears to be only one right thing to do, only one right choice - like the case of this fainting robin. And when we realize that there is only one right thing to do, then it seems as if we have no choice at all.

“It’s pretty amazing how much a little poem and your own imagination can teach you, isn’t it? Well, it’s amazing to me, at any rate… Next time when you read a poem, imagine yourself inside the poem, and imagine how you would feel, and what you would do. Don’t just try to analyze what the poem means - let your imagination be your teacher also! There may be more lessons inside a poem than even the poet intended. And actually, this is true for most situations in real life as well - you can learn something valuable from nearly every situation. Oh my gosh, it’s way past the time. Class is over!”