The Bird and the Joint

I woke up like every day (that I wake up) and went to the upper part of the overpass to drink my remaining bit of coffee. As consolation, I can contemplate the marvelous city that is São Paulo from this view.

On weekends, the ritual includes the addition of a joint to finish off the coffee and reflect. Suddenly, as I was lighting it, I saw a little bird land on the bridge and smiled. I kept looking at the horizon while dragging on it in the company of my new little friend, and exclaimed:

— This city, even with its peculiarities, is beautiful.

To my surprise, the bird turned to me and said in a somewhat low voice:

— What is beauty? Can you tell me?

I was a bit startled, I must admit. I even threw the joint out the window thinking it was to blame. I decided it was just my mind playing tricks, but I answered anyway — after all, I didn’t want to seem rude.

— I can’t say exactly. Beauty is what I find beautiful through my own concepts. Why did you ask that question? What is beauty to you?

At this point, I was engaging in a conversation with a bird, so there’s that.

— Everything is beautiful, as long as it is seen from the right angle. Moreover, nothing is beautiful, because beauty is a human concept and therefore not entirely applicable to reality.

He said, in a tone of wisdom. I didn’t exactly understand what he meant, but I didn’t want to seem ignorant in front of the bird, so I nodded and added, smiling:

— Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it’s subjective. It’s the sunrise, it’s my wife’s smile, and that is life.

— And yet, it is also the sun, it is the beating of wings, it is the tragedy of death. How can it be present in so many things that are so opposed?

At that moment I began to pay close attention to what he was saying, and he continued explaining. I started getting confused, and admitting my ignorance before the bird, I asked for answers that were troubling my insides.

— But then, is life really as opposed to death as we believe? Could believing in the idea of a universal unity be something poetic and wonderful? However, in doing so, I feel we would lose the intrinsic beauty of seeing the contrast, the variance, and diversity that exists in this vast and complex universe.

To which he promptly replied:

— Human, if you stop to think about it, unity and duality are equally irrelevant in terms of beauty and therefore should be irrelevant elsewhere. Remember the earlier statement about how human concepts are not entirely applicable to reality. Unity and duality are both human concepts, and any metaphor for the universe is a construct as well. However, it is through constructs that we can learn everything there is to be learned, and that is why I am determined to find a way that is capable of representing both the unity and the separation of contrast, its duality.

It was then, upon finishing these confusing words, that the crazy bird flew off toward freedom, and I became certain that I should never speak to birds again. Especially if they’re smarter than me.