The Boy and the Wood Pigeon

Little Timmy sat down in the park to play his flute. As he took it out of his bag, it began to make sounds that humans don’t usually make. Suddenly, a wood pigeon appeared and landed very close to him, staring at him as if surprised. But its landing had been so spectacular that it prompted the boy to ask, “How did you learn to fly like that?”

The wood pigeon replied, “I don’t know. One day I felt the time had come to fly, so I flew.” After a brief pause, she asked, “And why do you make those sounds? How did you learn to make them? It’s supposed to be something innate to us, but you’re not a bird.”

“I don’t know,” he replied with a shrug. “One day I heard those sounds in the park, and ever since then, I’ve liked making them from time to time.”

“Well, it seems there are things you feel, things you do, for which you don’t seek an explanation, and from what I can tell, you don’t even ask yourself about them. Yet you want to know how I learned to fly,” said the bird. “That’s why…” “The bird paused and fell into thought for a few seconds before continuing,” it’s curious; I’ve never asked anyone questions—not even myself—and it seems you do have that ability… How did you learn it? Why do you do it? I’ve always acted on instinct.”

The boy shrugged again and said, “I don’t know!”

They both stood there for a moment, lost in thought, gazing out at the horizon.

Then little Timy broke the silence. “Well, it looks like we’re both out of answers… and out of questions! Maybe there’s a chance we don’t need to ask questions, because we already ‘know’ all the answers”—and with that, they burst out laughing.

A little while later, the boy began to play the flute while the bird sang the melodies that the boy had once loved.

And so they spent an unforgettable day, as they were the stars of a wonderful experience in which a boy and a wood pigeon communicated with each other.

The origin of this story

As unbelievable as it may seem, this story is based on real events. One day I was sitting in the park when, about three meters away, I saw a wood pigeon eating leaves off the grass. At that moment, it occurred to me to make the characteristic sound of these birds, which had captivated me for some time. To my surprise, the pigeon flew toward me, landing less than a meter away on the ground. Thinking I had “said” something of interest to the bird, I made the same sound again. Then we stood motionless, staring at each other for quite a while—a little over a minute—until the wood pigeon flew away. In that instant, I thought: What could I have “said” to it? Did it hear a familiar sound that it couldn’t understand because it didn’t see another pigeon in front of it? What a shame we couldn’t communicate; we surely would have had an unforgettable day.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this story and the illustration. I look forward to seeing you again soon and hope to share a new story with you from this series dedicated to philosophy for children—and for adults who are still young at heart. Thank you for visiting my site and checking out this content. See you soon!

Details

Story: Original by Esteban Quintana de la Fuente (©EQ August 30, 2023).
Illustration: Original by Esteban Quintana de la Fuente (©EQ September 24, 2023).
Technique: watercolor, watercolor pencils, oil pastels.