The Song of Humanity

As I stumbled over the stairs in the common hall of this white, floral scented, urban apartment building's hallway, I mused over the elegance humans must have to use these legs all the time.  To count each stride in such ephemeral grace must make the moments that much more precious to them.

Oh what a joy it was that my lord, blessed be he, has let me walk amongst them for a day. Father, you have truly displayed a rendering of your own soul in those of man kind!  At the bottom of the downtrodden carpeted stairs, I steadied myself and got to my feet. The onning of the condensed lobby was purple and what a glorious and regal shade too! In the oval mirror above a desk, I looked at myself but forgot that I would only see my true nature in the mirror.

Still gazing at myself, I smilled thinking of where I was and stretched my long black wings as I got ready for my first day as a man.

I was overjoyed at the great outdoors and the booming life of an American city.

"Hello!" I said to the first person I met on the sidewalk.

They didn't answer but rather stared at me strangely as if they knew.  Did they know who I was? Were my wings showing? I felt back and though I knew they were there, I did not feel them so I knew I was still concealed.  My concerns assuaged, I moved on.

On the next block, I saw one of those human beings of great importance. I knew because he wore a business suit and talked into a tiny box that he seemed to enjoy.  I shadowed him for a while and saw the strength of mankind; that it did not stop to discuss small matters but rather blazed on through  crowds of people with such fierceness that it was worthy of angels in the great war. I admired this man and wanted to be him so I decided to engage him.

"Hello, Sir! How are you today?" I said with a smile.

He nodded and continued his conversation with the box.

"May I ask you..."

He waved his hand at me and ran off into a crowd.

I suppose I could have followed him but I did not see the reason.  It was strange, why would he not seek to share with a brother. I appeared as one of his kind and checked again to see if my wings still remained hidden but they were vacant as ever.

At the corner of some lively intersection, I hopped on some metallic vehicle and gave the man in the front seat some of this paper I had received for my day outside of heaven.

"You don't need to give me that much," said the man.

"I don't understand..." I said

"Ok asshole, here's your dollar and I keep this dollar. Get on and sit down."

"Thank you, sir," I said.

He looked out of the front window and seemed to stare at some bit of nothing that wasn't long ago. Then he shot a glance at me and nodded.

Looking out the windows, I saw all kinds of people.  They were busy and very little of them seemed to not be tied into some greater concern than simply enjoying being a human like me.

It depressed me and took me by surprise. I read their thoughts and became even less impressed. They seemed to judge their neighbor harshly and those who were happy thought with such bitter sarcasm that it seemed they only existed instead of lived.

Every now and then, I ran into the occasional believer. Not in my father, although there were many who claimed to do that as well, not always with sincerity, but in the beauty of being alive.  There's was only a feeling that I saw. The thoughts behind it were not as visible to me.

Regaining my composure, I left the "bus" and got off in a great nature preserve in the heart of this concrete monstrocity.  Walking through it on the concrete paths, I saw a man sitting on a bench just feeding the birds, eating a hot dog and scribbling on some document he had on top of a note pad.

His tired eyes had wrinkles on either end but his joy seemed to overflow from all parts. His wisdom was like that of a prophet and he seemed to be heavily focused on what he was doing.

Seeing room next to him, I sat down and began to watch the birds and envy their gift of flight. I had about ten or eleven hours left of time before I would have their gift again.

He hummed some long forgotten tune as he wrote all over the page in front of him and smiled at the scribbles as he shook his head.

He looked over at me and smiled so, I figured I would try, "hello."

He laughed and said, "Well hello there, son."

"Father?"

He laughed again, this time louder and roaring and simply shook his head as he went back to his work.

There was a long silence and I gazed out on a large pond and vast nature in the heart of a place that seemed built to choke life.The expression on my face must have betrayed me because he all but knew my thoughts.

"What's wrong, boy?" He said.

His cap was turned down but his eyes beamed out from under it a coffee brown that stood out in the shade like a fine table lacquer.  He had a perfectly square patch of facial hair that seemed to hang from under his nose all the way to where it dribbled off from his chin with a regal sense of grace.

"I believe in the majesty of humanity." I told him.
"I would give you a valuable piece of advice, son," said the old man in between crooning some tune long since forgotten by time, "the world was and to an extent, still is, built by ambitious, idealistic young men. You tryin' to get in on the ground floor, though. You gotta remember also, that it's maintained by hackneyed, crestfallen old folks like me. That's the real reason they tell you to respect your elders: 'Cause you gonna become one of us, some day."
I spent the majority of the day at the park and we sat there in silence for another hour or two before he got up nodded and left. I went back to heaven at midnight.