Legend says that long ago, there was a bird that sang just once in its life. From the moment it left its nest, it searched for a thorn tree. And it never rested until it found one. Then it began to sing more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. And singing, it impaled its heart on the longest, sharpest thorn. But as it was dying, it rose above its own agony to out-sing the lark and the nightingale. The bird pays its life for that one great song, existence is the price but the whole world stills to listen and God, in His heaven, smiles.
(Colleen McCullough, Australian author, b.1937)