Cage-ed Canary

Greeting and Salutations,

I decided to name my parent's canary Skinner. I named him that the day after they got him. I was hoping to come up with something better but that was the first thing I came up with. My parents moved him near the window after Christmas as the Christmas tree was at the window. Skinner was not singing when we first got him. He was just chirping. Skinner was on a 30 day probation period where we could return him if he didn't sing. A few days after he was moved to his new area, he did begin to sing. He is a good singer He seems to enjoy looking out the window. Prior to him being moved, I thought about what we could do to get him to sing. I thought that maybe there is a canary cd for birds. I looked online and came across several that say it encourages canaries to sing because it features other canaries. A canary can learn to sing by mimicking other canaries.

When we had our previous canary many moons ago, I would often open the cage door so that he could fly around the house. Usually Bobby would stay in the living room. I had opened the cage door for Skinner on Saturday but he did not go out. I opened it again on Sunday and left it open for the whole afternoon and he did not go out. When I first opened the door, I noticed that he aware of the door being open. But for some reason, he didn't make the connection that he could fly and have some fun.

I think this behaviour is something that we humans tend to do as well. We're all in some form of a metaphorical cage. When someone opens the door, we may see that there is an opening and yet we do not go out. We stay in for various reasons. And we miss out on exploring. Skinner could have explored the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, etc, but he could never go beyond his own cage. The cage represents our egotistical nature. We ususally stick with what is familiar, rarely challenging the false ideas and beliefs that our minds contain.

One can argue that perhaps there is nothing wrong about Skinner staying in his cage because maybe he felt he didn't need to leave because all of his needs are met.

I had pondered this and I myself couldn't come up with a counter argument. So maybe we all should just be content and stick with what is familar. Being complacent is underrated.