A wild goose tale

If you were once crawling on the ground, and now having taken to the sky, when you look down and see your former peers, do you regard them with contempt and disdain, or would you have empathy and compassion for them? Or have you flown so high that they are out-of-sight and out-of-mind.

Sometimes, we forget where we come from. Perhaps it was because the past had been difficult and we would rather forget it. Perhaps our world has opened up so much that the past seemed so miserable and insignificant. Perhaps the heights have made us giddy and forgetful.

But I find it really sad, to see people turning their backs on those peers, the very people who supported and encouraged them, when they were similarly struggling at the bottom.

I understand that, having discovered a bigger world, and realizing it is possible to achieve higher, it can be frustrating to see those peers seemingly unwilling to make the effort to elevate themselves. I understand that having achieved something once thought impossible, there is the aspiration to achieve even higher, to fly to the limits of the sky. I understand that the breakthrough is achieved through great personal effort, through sheer determination and struggles. I understand, because I have been through some of these states at some point in time. But I realize these are never reasons to despise the same people who have helped us when we were in humbler situations.

I do not ask that people let their past and former peers hold them back from their potential, from soaring to the heights their ability can bring them to. I only wish that people would not forget where they come from.

Perhaps, it's because I am not a high-flyer. If I take to sky, I am alright flying low. I would help others to take flight, and be satisfied with seeing them soar to the sky, flying far and high.

The Chinese says that the sparrow knows not the wild goose's aspirations. But the sparrow was once friend to the goose before he took to the skies. And one day, when tiredness sets in and the time comes for the goose to leave his high-flying peers and come down to rest, it may be the sparrow who is still there to provide comfort and support.