Death of the Blue Dove

Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
-- Bertrand Russell



My grandmother used to tell me a story and like all her other stories this was a weird one for a bed-time story but unlike rest of her story I always knew this one had a message... I never thought it will take me so many years to realize it and today out of blue it just came in my mind.

It goes like:-

Once upon a time, there was this white dove and it goes out to hunt for food. A little boy captures it, the boy was very mischievous and decides that it would be fun if he paints it allblue. Thus, the boy paints the dove all blue and then sets it free.


That blue dove goes back to the woods. It goes back to its tree not realizing that it was all blue now. All the other white doves look at that blue dove and get frightened. They couldn’t recognize that it was one of them and considered that blue dove an enemy.


They all gather around it and try to make that blue dove leave. They start pecking at it, biting it, pushing it, shoving it. That blue dove gets confused; it doesn’t understand why everyone is treating it differently. All the white doves finally push it off the tree.

That blue dove gets really hurt but it had nowhere else to go. Those trees were its home. It gets up and flies back to the tree. That makes all the white doves even more frightened which leads to anger. This time they attack that blue dove quite viciously. They peck at it over and over and over and over until they kill that blue dove. Then they push that blue dove off the tree. They were all now much more at peace because their enemy was gone.

Then it starts to rain. The heavens cry for that blue dove. All the blue paint comes off of the dead body of that blue dove. That blue dove was now white again.

The next morning all the white doves see the dead body of that once blue dove. Now that blue dove was one of them. They all gather together and bury it with love and honor.

Why did that blue dove have to die? Because it became “the other” for all the white doves.
The doves couldn’t see the similarity that was skin deep between that blue dove and themselves.

We are not animals, we are rational thinkers and have a conscious. We as humans should be able to see what lies skin deep is all the same. The differences are superficial. Regardless of what religion, language, color of the skin, ethnicity, and sexual orientation we have, we all laugh the same, cry the same, hurt the same, and love the same.

The blue doves don’t have to die. Just because things have been done differently in the past doesn’t mean that they have to be done the same way in the future. We have the choice to either become part of the crusade that perpetuates hatred and insanity or become part of the crusade that reduces suffering, seeking peace and ensuing it.