The Thorn Bird

There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And, dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of great pain.... Or so says the legend...

The Thorn Birds is the title of a novel by Colleen McCullough and this paragraph is the prologue of the book.

These lines intrigued me. Does a bird like that really exist? I searched a lot in google but ended up with the same paragraph everywhere. I read it again and again and again.. The same questions come up everytime I read it. Does the bird really exist? Why does it die? Why does it sing only once? Is it singing or crying? If it is a legend, what does it imply? The lines are very intense.. deep and painful.

No gain without pain is one implication. One can be at his best only when he has gone through a lot of pain in learning and practising. There is also frustration because he is trying to give his best but he is not able to do it. He knows how his performance should be and he has done everything possible to achieve it. But he fails again and again. It looks perfect to others but not to him. There was something missing; it was not as he wanted it. He tries again and again. Until one day he succeeds in giving what he wanted to give and how we wanted to give it. He is reborn after that performance. It was an eternal bliss.

One more implication could be something like this.

People cry with all their heart only once in their lives. The agony that is pent up in the heart from so many years makes its way out only once. Its not a cry, it is something else. It leaves everything around numb for sometime. Life is not the same after that.. Life changes..

PS: Joblessness over the weekends makes me write such absurd posts. Hope the next weekend is not so ......