If I Were A Bird…

I’m not sure what’s more important nowadays: a smile on your face or money in your pocket. I think the world is losing its sense of what is important and what is necessary.

I’ve had this dream, since I was about 16, of travelling the world, soaking up all its culture and cuisine, its joyful festivities and blood-curdling uprisings and mirroring all I’ve experienced onto a sheet of feint ruled blank paper. That hasn’t really changed. But back then, I dreamt of doing it as a bird. You know, a completely impartial passenger on Earth’s non-stop carousel. Strange, I know. I wasn’t a normal child. Anyway, the reason for choosing a bird was this creature’s one incredible ability – flight.

I apologise to any ostrich, penguin or dodo who is perhaps reading this, but the freedom of flight, of being able to choose a destination, packing your bags and pinging towards it at a rate of wind is a bird’s best attribute. I wanted to be a bird. An albatross, in fact. I would never need to stop. I could see the entire world on the length of my enormous wings, never having to go through passport checks and body checks and Czech checks. I’d be able to fly, land, see, study, marvel, wonder, ponder, think, write and leave. Wonderful.

The problem with being human though? You need a stack of Greenbacks to buy an aeroplane ticket to fly to Berlin or Santiago. You can’t go as freight or as another’s souvenir. You can’t just board your own wings, point to the sky and jump, praying that you’ll suddenly defy Newton’s laws for a few seconds. Nope. And that’s ultimately where the “what would the world be without money?” debate comes in.

In all honesty, if I had the time and none of the pressure of working after I finally get my degree, I would love to journet my way through Africa, with the clothes on my back, a camera in my and and a notepad tucked inside my pants pocket. What an experience that must be! Us, Capetonians, are so sheltered in the Westernised ways the Europeans left behind for us. We forget that we’re in the most culturally rich continent, forgetting the wild, untamed wilderness of the Serengeti and Congo rainforest. The sleeping volcanic peaks of Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro and the man-made Pyramids of Giza. All this we have, on out doorstep! If I had the chance, I would discover Africa first. After all, it’s where I live.

But, I guess, if I were an albatross, a long, lofty albatross, I wouldn’t need to plan my future. There’d be no wallet, no degree, no time. I could just flap through life, watching each sunrise and sunset a thousand heads above land.

- reddevilandy10