Imagine you are a bird, and you have lived your entire life up to this point in a cage… one day you awake and find that the cage door has been opened, and at the same time you have two major conflicting emotions, excitement and fear.
You are excited at the prospect of freedom, but at the same time you are paralyzed with fear… you can’t even move, you are just frozen in place staring at the open door thinking about all the things that could happen. After all, this could all be a setup… maybe whoever opened the cage door is hungry and they are waiting around the corner with a shotgun ready to blow my brains out. Maybe the door is open because there is some unknown obstacle or terror nearby that is just waiting to pounce. How would I get fed? Isn’t it much better here in the cage where I am guaranteed a level of care by the owner of the cage? I can feed on the same old birdseed that I have always had, even though it is stale and boring I will continue to eat it because it is provided for me for free. I wouldn’t know where there could possibly be any water out there for me to drink either.On the other hand… there is FREEDOM outside that door! And then you realize the freedom is worth more than your life, this cage is literally killing you, and you make the decision that either you stay here in this cage and just wait to die… or you risk everything and go for freedom.
At first your wing twitches, and then a second later your whole body comes to life as you bolt out that door, and out into the world with a newfound ability to fly without restrictions anywhere you want to go. Then you find the biggest and tastiest worm that you have never had and realize that this was worth risking your life for. Even if the freedom only lasts 20 minutes.