There's a reason I stopped watching the news, and the past week has reiterated my point. Though I feel for the victims of the hurricane related tragedies, I care not to lose what little faith I have in mankind by listening to the media report of murders,
looting and chaos in the Big Easy. I found long ago there is very little for me to gain by rubbernecking someone else's misery at 6 and 11. There is nothing I can do but drop off a box of clothes to donate, perhaps make a financial contribution and thank goddamned heaven that all I have to do is shovel snow and chisel off a stubborn layer of ice from my windshield from November to April.
Speaking of dreadful winters, I just took the O-Dog to see the March of the Penguins yesterday. Though I had read the film had a bit of death in it, I thought the pros outweighed the cons, and opted to take him anyway. I figured I'd explain all the dead penguins away by telling him they were "sleeping." It worked. In all honesty, I was curious to see the film myself. I left the theater with an overwhelming feeling of love for my boys and wife, a desire to have another baby, more respect for animals and less for mankind.
Penguins, after million of years of evolution, cooperate and work together for the survival of their offspring and species. As they huddle together en masse, braving temperatures that would freeze piss mid-stream, they realize that their survival and that of their newborns depends on full cooperation with all the other members of their colony. I'm sure they figured it out a couple of million years ago when a sensible penguin told his bickering brethren to "chill the f*ck out," lest they freeze their collective asses off fighting over whose turn it was to sit on the outer edge of the huddle.So, as we gasp in horror at images of floating corpses and bodies in wheelchairs and cringe at stories of alleged murder, rape and pillaging, or debating whether there is anything 'racist' about the whole tragedy, we can only hope that someday we might figure out what penguins, bees and ants have known for eons. What that might be, I don't know.
In the meantime, may I never accuse anyone of "acting like an animal." That would be a compliment.
1 comment:
Love the post. Many of us can learn from the innate sense of community that certain animals seem to have. It makes us look rather idiotic in comparison don't you think? I think that was your point. People are dumb and I am too dumb to figure out how to change that.
Post a Comment