Kierkegaard's Duck

by Joey Davis

The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote a parable of a wild duck that is a splendid illustration of how the soul declines from its ideals and becomes satisfied with lower standards.

With his mates, this duck was flying in the springtime northward across Europe.

During the flight he came down in a Danish barnyard where there were tame ducks. He enjoyed some of their corn. He stayed for an hour, then for a day, then for a week, then for a month, and finally, because he relished the good food and the safety of the barnyard, he stayed all summer. But one autumn day when the flock of wild ducks were winging their way southward again, they passed over the barnyard, and their mate heard their cries. He was stirred with a strange thrill of joy and delight, and with a great flapping of wings he rose in the air to join his old comrades in their flight.

But he found that his good fare had made him so soft and heavy that he could rise no higher than the eaves of the barn. So he dropped back again to the barnyard and said to himself, "Oh, well, my life is safe here, and the food is food." Every spring and autumn when he heard the wild ducks honking, his eyes would gleam for a moment and he would begin to flap his wings. But finally the day came when the wild ducks flew over him and uttered their cry, and he paid not the slightest attention to them. . .

. . . As the wildman stood amongst the stones, Jesus spoke to the demons within. "Who are you?" He asked. "We call ourselves legion for we are many," replied the demons. This is not what I consider the most interesting exchange in this particular history. It's what happens next that really makes me think.

You see, the demons begged Jesus not to destroy them, .but to cast them into a flock of nearby swine. To a Jew, the idea of having any part with a swine was a distasteful insult, but to the demons, it seemed a suitable place to dwell.

More interesting is Jesus' granting of the request. I've never really understood why Jesus did this. But obviously Jesus knew more about the swine than did the demons. For as the story continues, about 2000 pigs committed suicide in the nearby waters.

You see, there are some things that people will carry around with them that pigs couldn't bear. Sometimes we lower our standards to the point that we become as unrecognizable to ourselves as the demoniac and as complacent as the duck in Kierkegaard's story.

Let's examine ourselves and raise our standards so we may soar as God intended.