The Shadows of Cages

/

Brad took these photos at Columbus Zoo in Ohio and at a photo shoot in San Luis Obispo, CA.  Whether you believe animals have intelligence or not, these pictures are haunting.  The sentient gaze, the desire for freedom, the protective embrace, the encircling hand that says "I am here. You are not alone." - are all impossible to dismiss.  Sentience is the holy breath that expands and contracts us - it animates and connects all things. We are ALL illuminated by the invisible Unspoken, the One Essence.  I realize researchers learn a lot from observing animals, but the plexiglass fishbowls they house them in, diminish and objectify them. Concrete moats, fake tree limbs, scaffolding racks - is that really a fair trade? 

I remember my first trip to the zoo. On my last, glorious day of AF Basic Training, I was offered a choice of celebrations - I could go to River Walk Mall or to San Antonio Zoo.  Easy choice! I picked the zoo. Shopping is not an easy thing for me even when I have money to spend, but animals always make me curious. Having never been to the zoo, my expectations were bright yellow and aimed at the moon.  As sometimes happens to obsessive noticers, reality shifted for me, and offered me a glimpse from the animal's perspective. This was a jolt. 

My red thrill for discovery abruptly collided with black shadows, heaviness and heartbreak. The crash was sharp, a slap to the face.  It stumbled my center. and toppled the balance of my square footing, My straight edges collapsed to round, and I was rolling like a hand full of marbles, all over the ground.  Disquieted and sad, I settled on a bench to watch people instead, . .my zoo-shine, eclipsing.  I saw that children sensed the "wrongness" too. I watched them bounce joyous and hopeful toward a cage, then deflate and slip behind Daddy's legs or baby Sister's stroller. The question I heard floating across the hot steamy air most was, "But Daddy, why is he so sad?"

Sadly, parents were looking, but not seeing.  On a mission to teach, their attentions and intentions were focused solely on identifying, characterizing, and labeling a species.     

I found this photo so tender-sweet it made me sigh. . . instant tears.  Here is the symbol that paints that first experience!  The sadness, the captivity and despair.  And yet, despite it all - love, family, and community.  Lao Tzu said, "Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."  That is so beautifully captured in this photo.

Mirabai's Cure for Sadness:

I know a cure for sadness; Let your hands

touch something that makes your eyes smile.

I bet there are a hundred objects

close by that can do that.

Look at beauty's gift to us - her power

is so great she enlivens the earth, the sky our soul.

Words don't work here... but I know you can feel it.  Just sit quietly, feel it.

***

"If you truly hold a stone, you can feel the mountain it came from."

- Mark Nepo

***

"Do you know what you are?

You are a manuscript of a divine letter.

You are a mirror reflecting a noble face.

This universe in not outside of you.

Look inside yourself;

everything that you want,

you are already that."

- Rumi