Dear Friends,
Flaco, The Call of the Wild
“It’s not how much time you have in life but how much life you have in time.”
~ Hong Kong activist who was fighting for democracy while dying of cancer
Flaco, a wild Eurasian eagle-owls, is an Exodus story and Easter story wrapped into one. Born in captivity, Flaco lived a dozen years in a comfortable cage in the Central Park Zoo. But Flaco’s life at the zoo was unremarkable. Only after he was freed from the Central Park Zoo by a vandal in February 2023, he began to inspire true awe. For little over a year subsequent sightings captivated New York City and fans around the globe.
Flaco was far from his natural home: Eurasian eagle-owls, known by the scientific name Bubo bubo, are apex predators typically found in much of Europe, Scandinavia, Russia and Central Asia. They are among the world’s largest owls, with a wingspan as wide as six feet. They thrive in mountains and other rocky areas near forests, swooping down at night to hunt rodents, rabbits and other prey.
As Flaco flew around the city, landing on rooftops and crosswalks in New York city, Flaco fans were terrified that he’d succumb to the dangers of city life. Flaco had no experience living outside a cage, and New Yorkers initially doubted his chances of survival. People worried that he’d eat a rat with enough poison in its system to kill him. And people worried about his chances with oncoming traffic.
But Flaco never looked back. Though the animal literature is peppered with stories of animals — usually pets — who suffer hardships and return home, Flaco never retreated to the zoo. Perhaps freedom itself was the home he’d discovered. And though we feared for him, his new life thrilled us.
On Friday, Feb. 23rd, Flaco died of acute traumatic injury, perhaps from a collision with a Manhattan apartment building’s glass windows. Flaco would have turned 14 in March 2024. Wild Eurasian eagle-owls can live more than 40 years in captivity, but only 20 on average in their natural habitat.
His death offered us a chance to reckon with the question at the heart of many a hero’s journey: Can we put a price on freedom? Flaco’s liberation from his comfortable confinement came at a cost — he spent the final year of his life free, but threatened from all sides by a booming city. Was it worth it?
Almost from the moment he was released, Flaco became a symbol of hope for many of the people who followed his story and recognized parts of themselves in him. Some saw him as the embodiment of the American dream, an outsider who had come to Manhattan and made a life for himself here, like millions of others who arrived penniless and unconnected in their quest for freedom.
How many of us, our circumstances familiar and safe, are too timid to seek our more fully realized selves? How many of us, viewing our confinements as nothing out of the ordinary, have long stopped wondering what our wings are for?
Flaco, even though short lived, taught us a profound truth – wild animals can only thrive in the wild. They cannot thrive as a commodity on display in a zoo – no matter how safe and comfortable it is. I couldn’t imagine having an almost six-foot wingspan and not being able to use it. And, in a deep way, he confirmed what we all know – that we are created to be free and gloriously alive.
“I am the resurrection and the life.
~ John 11:25
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
~ John 10:10
John
