Nova Daily - 10 June 2025: The caged bird

Hi!

Upon writing yesterday's blog, an idea came into my head. It's an idea that I've read somewhere in a text on relationships, but the metaphor is almost certainly borrowed from the poem "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings" from Maya Angelou, which I use at times throughout this text.

The student outgrowing their teacher is a phenomenon that happens a lot in the world of competitive sports. It also happens in other relationships, but for the purposes of this text, let's keep it to the teacher/student relationship.

When a student outgrows the need for their teacher, very often one of two things happens.

1. The caged bird

The teacher feels comfortable with the way things are, and for them this situation doesn't have to change. Having someone to teach gives the teacher a sense of stability and structure.

When the student indicates that he or she no longer needs the teacher, the teacher feels hurt. Without having realised it, the teacher had grown emotionally attached to the student, and it almost feels like the student is ending a romantic relationship with them. The teacher feels like they're losing their power. The teacher becomes more nasty, more vile, and tries everything to make the student dependent on them. They psychologically manipulate the student by guilt-tripping and gaslighting tactics in a ploy to make sure that the student doesn't leave them. "What did I teacher ever do wrong? How could you do this to me? I have so much more to offer you! The other teachers don't know what you need as well as I do!"

In this scenario, the teacher has grown to care too much for the student. Not wanting to give away what the teacher already had, they want to prove that the student is dependent on them. It's as if the teacher locks a bird in its cage so that the student won't leave. And indeed the student doesn't leave, but the student will forever be resentful about never fulfilling their full potential, which they could have done if the teacher had allowed them to spread their wings.

The basis for a relationship like this is control. The teacher isn't a bad person per se, but they are unable to deal with the feeling that they will no longer matter as much to their student.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing

2. The free bird

When Beth Harmon was preparing for her big tournament behind the Iron Curtain, she could use all the help that she could get. Along the way of her career, she had come across several people who wanted to help her: Mr. Shaibel, Harry Beltik, D.L. Townes, Benny Watts. However, Harmon grew so quickly as a chess-player that she rapidly outgrew her need for them. She had to leave them, which was not necessarily a nice thing to do.

If I remember correctly, in the novel she struggled much mroe with the men leaving her than she did in the Netflix series. However, the point remains the same. Whether or not she wanted to break free from the men, it had to be done. She wasn't to become a caged bird. She had to break the shackles that held her captive.

She had places to go.

Beth Harmon represents the free bird. Because she's allowed to spread her wings and soar to the sky, she was able to reach her full potential and proceed to beat Vasily Borgov in a direct confrontation on the latter's home turf.

I don't necessarily want to compare my friend to Beth Harmon, but it can't really hurt to do so. The solution to the situation remains the same: he has to spread his wings and reach for the sky.

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn

and he names the sky his own.

Today's game

It took quite some time before my game had started, and as a rare occasion I decided to put up some music during the play. It's a lengthy piece of music that I thought might take longer than the game, but that wasn't the case: the movement was already 40% on the way when the game started, so it was finished well before the game reached its conclusion.

The exchange of text during the game was fun, and foreshadowing.

I'll be very interested to see what the sources will tell me.

N.B.: All the images I used to describe the Caged Bird story came from the Convict Leasing and Labor Project.