The Black Swan

Too Long; Didn't Read

<span>I</span> remember clearly the first time I encountered a black swan. Two black swans to be precise. They seemed a relaxed couple, paddling along in a pond outside a castle in the town of Palma, Mallorca. The pond was circular, had walls made of cobblestone, and was completely green from all the algae that covered its surface. Being a somewhat lost twenty year old, who had worked his way to Mallorca from Stockholm on a schooner, I had never seen or heard of black swans before and thus never even considered the possibility of such creatures existing, let alone finding them in Europe. The surprise i felt must have been much like the feeling the first explorers who had the same experience felt when they first laid their eyes upon such an anti-expectation of a bird. Considering the metaphorical meaning of a so called <em>black swan event</em>, chances are that they felt exactly as I did.