Why do we choose to share our lives with animals? Are we seeking "unconditional love?" It is so comforting to know that there is someone waiting for us at the end of long day; someone happy to greet us without judgement...just total acceptance. Here is a being who is vulnerable, and yet, doesn't seem to remember past hurts. Everything is immediate - life is happening now, not yesterday and not tomorrow. Sure, we love to spoil our pets. Someone once called them:"The only love money can buy."
But I think the real reason we share our lives with animals has to do with the fact that they are not human. Animals are wild, no matter how domesticated they seem, these creatures are our link to the natural world and to our own inner wildness.
Unless you live "off the grid,"or way out in the "sticks," your experience of the natural world is always filtered through technology. Animals can sense a storm coming, they can smell far away rain and feel earth tremors long before we do. They understand the patterns of sunlight in winter. Shadows speak to them like birds who know the moment to begin migration.
Animals invite us to re-connect to our place in nature and to that place within that is still "wild." C.S. Lewis recognized that wildness we share with animals. In his Chronicles of Narnia, he made this point about Aslan: "He's wild, you know."
Animals help us to remember, to re-connect, and to resonate with our wildness.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Sunday, January 16, 2011
The Mysterious Game of Football
"Take my out to the Ball Game.." I love baseball! At least once a season, I go to Yankee Stadium. When the world series ends, I am counting the days until Spring training. But all through Fall and Winter, my friends watch the Mysterious Game of Football. O well, I deal with it.
I can understand the words: touchdown and intercepted, but when I hear the ref say, "Holding, number 23, that penalty is declined, first down," I recognize the English words, but darned it I know what it means. Now I've learned that a player broke a rule (holding) and the other team gets closer to their goal (first down).
Another thing I hear the announcer say is: "first and ten." I'm always hearing "first and ten" unless I hear: "first and twelve or first and goal." So now I have learned that this is the first attempt at ten or twelve yards or goal and that the team is allowed four attempts.
It took about three years, but finally I am getting a better understanding of the mysterious game of football. Only last year I realized that the quarterback of my team is not on the field when the other team has the ball. I learned quickly what it means when the quarterback is "sacked," but only yesterday did I learn the meaning of "blitzed."
Just when I think I'm getting to understand this game, I learn a new rule...too many players on the field or not enough players on the field. Now you won't find that in baseball.
I can understand the words: touchdown and intercepted, but when I hear the ref say, "Holding, number 23, that penalty is declined, first down," I recognize the English words, but darned it I know what it means. Now I've learned that a player broke a rule (holding) and the other team gets closer to their goal (first down).
Another thing I hear the announcer say is: "first and ten." I'm always hearing "first and ten" unless I hear: "first and twelve or first and goal." So now I have learned that this is the first attempt at ten or twelve yards or goal and that the team is allowed four attempts.
It took about three years, but finally I am getting a better understanding of the mysterious game of football. Only last year I realized that the quarterback of my team is not on the field when the other team has the ball. I learned quickly what it means when the quarterback is "sacked," but only yesterday did I learn the meaning of "blitzed."
Just when I think I'm getting to understand this game, I learn a new rule...too many players on the field or not enough players on the field. Now you won't find that in baseball.
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