The Search for Ostrich

The Search for Ostrich

A fable

Once upon a time in a far away land, there lived a beautiful Ostrich. Ostrich lived in a community of all sorts of animals but was unhappy being an ostrich.
One evening, he met a peacock and wished he had colourful feathers like the peacock but no matter how Ostrich ruffled his feathers, they still looked plain compared to the peacock’s. It didn’t take Ostrich long before finding a way to colour his feathers and colour his feathers he did. He made his tail bright green and his neck a vivid blue and he added a dash of yellow and black along his back and afterwards, Ostrich stood and admired his feathers in a small mirror, thinking he had never looked more beautiful.
The following day however, despite his happiness over his newly coloured feathers, Ostrich met a parrot and realised that his beak was an ugly brown and not quite as elegant as parrot’s and Ostrich forgot his beautiful feathers and decided he had to adjust his beak. This wasn’t a simple matter though because while Ostrich could colour his beak, he could hardly replace it but Ostrich was very determined and searched through the community marketplace for something that would let him change his beak. At last, he found a small costume shop and in the front window hung a bird-made beak that looked exactly like the parrot’s and Ostrich quickly tried it on and thought it looked perfect on him and so Ostrich ran out of the store with his brilliant and parrot-like beak.
A week later, Ostrich happened to come across a rooster and then a vulture and finally an eagle and each time, Ostrich felt he needed to improve his appearance and by the end of the month, Ostrich had the feathers of a peacock, the beak of a parrot, the yellow feet of a rooster, the bare neck of a vulture, and the sharp eyes of an eagle, and Ostrich felt he had never looked better. Why, he was beautiful and all the other animals complimented him on his appearance and Ostrich certainly looked unlike his old self.
One morning though, Ostrich was out for a morning walk and was carefully dressed to highlight his wonderful feathers and attractive feet when he noticed another ostrich. Ostrich had never seen another of his kind before in these quarters and this ostrich looked exactly like Ostrich would have if he hadn’t coloured his feathers and changed his beak, feet, neck, and eyes, but unlike Ostrich, this stranger walked happily along as if he was the most beautiful bird in the world and watching him, Ostrich had to admit he did indeed look beautiful. It occurred to Ostrich that he should go back to how he was at the start but there was a question on Ostrich’s mind. Would that actually make him happy and knowing what Ostrich was like, would he be happy as he was before? The answer is of course known to everyone…