I saw this and other imprisoned birds at a phở restaurant near Hanoi. Full disclosure: I was once one of them. No, not the birds – at least in a literal sense – but their owners. As a teenager, I had a small parrot who spent most of his time in a cage with occasional bursts of freedom, at least in the living room. He would excitedly fly from his cage to a lampshade to my hand. For a long time, it has made me sad to see caged birds, something that’s popular in Vietnam. They sing but only to other birds they have no contact with and can only see through the bars of their tiny prison homes.

The only pet I would ever get in Vietnam is a bird but I can’t for this reason. I like cats and dogs but they require attention and green space. I don’t have time for the former right now and Vietnam doesn’t have the latter in most urban areas. Too many people, pets, and vehicles in too small an area = pet urine and excrement filling up the few available parks and sidewalks. But I regress – kind of.

So, while eating my phở and drinking my iced tea, I thought about opening the cage doors on my way out hoping no one would notice. One of my eating companions logically said the shopowner would call the police. I responded, “What would the charge be?” Not theft. Of course, I would be required to compensate the owner for the cost of the birds. Vietnam’s national slogan, Independence – Freedom – Happiness, popped into my head. Only for human beings if they’re lucky.

It occurred to me that these birds’ life mirrors that of many (most?) human beings. They are constrained by physical, emotional, and psychic barriers. On the bright side, while their life is one of monotony and boredom, it’s preferable to that of millions of human beings who are denied the basics of food, shelter, and safety and are the victims of violence, including a murderous and unrelenting assault in Gaza that is a textbook case of genocide.

Postscript: Yes, and the prisoner birds were singing their hearts out, I thought of Maya Angelou’s 1969 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a book she wrote at the age of 40.

Shalom (שלום), MAA