Week 2 story: The Blue Jays and the Sparrows

A blue jay invading a sparrow's nest. Source: John Adams

There once was a time when young blue jays and sparrows could not soar through the sky together; the blue jays thought themselves to be superior to the sparrows due to the color of their feathers, and they did not want to fly alongside the brown-feathered sparrows.

After many years of this separation, however, the blue jays begrudgingly began to share airspace with the sparrows. The sparrows were relieved and delighted to finally be accepted for who they were and not derided for their appearance. But some blue jays were angry about the change, and so even though they were flying among more birds than they used to, the sparrows felt more alone than ever.

One motherly blue jay took it upon herself to teach both young blue jays and young sparrows how to fly out of the nest. She sat with her pupils and told them stories of how the blue jays and sparrows were once separated, but the blue jays had a change of heart and welcomed the sparrows into the sky with open wings. She painted a wonderful narrative of the kindness blue jays extended to the sparrows as they apologized for the bigotry of their forefathers.

One young sparrow raised her wing and asked, "What about the hateful things some blue jays say to the sparrows, or the times they have pushed sparrows out of trees and broken their wings? Are some blue jays not still cruel to the sparrows?"

The motherly blue jay laughed and shook her head. "Silly girl," she said. "The separation of the blue jays and the sparrows is over. We now fly alongside each other with open wings. The cruelty is no more."

That evening, the sparrow went back to her mother's nest and told her what her teacher had said.

"Do not listen to the blue jays when they speak about the history of the sparrows," her mother told her, "for they did not experience the sparrows' pain firsthand, and thus it is easy for them to forget it."

Author's note: This story was based on Aesop's fable The Lion and the Statue. In this fable, Aesop says, "We can easily represent things as we wish them to be." We see in many arenas of life that when the oppressor controls the narrative, they can control the way we remember history. 

Bibliography: The Lion and the Statue by Aesop.