Breaking free of our bonds can send us soaring. Or it can make us crash hideously. Sometimes the same experiment or adventure can lead to both results, and sometimes that can happen in short shrift. Hubris leads, often enough, to overreaching and all manner of unrealistic expectations and lets us take stupid risks, if we get too caught up in our dreams or delusions to pay attention to their practical details.
Breaking free of all constraints has its challenges; it can be a long, laborious, and sometimes dangerous task.
Icarus, My Cousin
A bird, aloft on updrafts in the sun
Above the path, could see one tiny soul,
Alone as if in death, yet singly, whole,
Complete and full contented as that One—
For on that path, and in that blessed place,
He knew such deep delight, such peace and calm
From drawing in each breath of nature’s balm
With that sweet sun so gentle on his face—
It seemed that like the bird, he too could fly,
Could rise above the green enchanted wood,
Need only think it and, behold, he could
Leap up at will, suspended in the sky—
Yet, knowing he could not thus really do,
He suddenly wept, bitter now with rue—
So turns the heart of merely mortal man,
Full in one moment of outlandish joy;
The next, despairing like a little boy,
Because the joy’s imperfect, as it can
Be seen by clearer eyes to truly be;
So rose that wanderer up to the crest,
Where soon the path was free of trees, and best,
Clear-viewed down from the cliff there to the sea—
He bound upon his shoulders feathered wings,
Sleek as the bird’s, to take by force his flight
And steal the sky, but its great burning light,
The blazing sun, had no use for such things,
And cast him, melted, in the ocean swell,
Gravity’s slave, thrown back from heav’n to hell.
The world, powerful as it is, cannot fully contain me.
For myself, I will concede that I have been known to aim higher than my reach many a time, to think I am better or more skilled or more prepared for certain things than I really am. I have gotten knocked on my backside more than once; turned down, failed, fooled, exposed. There are fissures in the earth to prove the grandness of my fall. But what little I have accomplished was done mainly by dint of that same outsized expectation of my success, and without that I would hardly have moved since birth. So while I may grow and change as slowly as a tree breaking roots out of its paved prison cell, I will take my cue from that tree and keep expanding and hoping, and just see what I can do.
Art-Colored Glasses 
We have at least to try
Despite my being such a scaredy-cat, I will admit that I have even learned over the years that occasionally the pratfalls are as much fun as the successes, if I don’t take myself too seriously. 😀
wow cathy!! that was artistic
Thank you kindly, my dear!
I’m with you but as gingerfightback said, I am not afraid of trying. There’s always something to learn even if it is a failure.
In fact, the failures are often the *most* educational among all of the efforts, aren’t they! 😉
Indeed, we risk or we rust. Great post my friend!
I shall endeavor, in my remaining years, to be a little more frisky about getting risky! No point in sitting around growing creaky because I was too lazy or intimidated to ever move out of my comfort zone.
The phrase “give short shrift” has an interesting origin:
http://grammarist.com/usage/short-shrift/
The legend of Icarus has inspired many people to write a version of the story. I quoted (and translated) a French one in an early post of mine:
http://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/living-amber-exacts-its-deadly-toll/
Good for you to keep seeing what new things you can do.
I know it’s *good* for me to keep trying; that’s why I so often post about it, to nag myself a little to keep moving forward, since it’s counter to my natural inclinations toward stasis, laziness and the safe comforts of familiarity!
It was good to revisit the phrase ‘short shrift,’ too. I always saw it as a reference to being allowed less than optimal time or conditions for being shriven, but didn’t necessarily make the connection to those facing execution. All the more sobering, indeed.
Ta-ta! I’m off to visit *your* Icarus reference now, thank you!
Very clever and beautiful!
You are sweet. Thank you!
Just honest, lol You’re welcome! 🙂
A wonderful post, from image to poem to wise observation!
Many thanks, Elena. I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
We will never grow if we don’t try to outreach our grasp. Great pair of images, too, Kathryn, to illustrate your point.
I was really struck, as we walked by it, by how much it looked like that tree was trying to crawl out of its cage.