Born Free

Its been almost two months into the year of 2019. Seems like time passes away pretty fast....maybe I am getting old...or perhaps life is too busy and hectic. Either way time moves fast...

For about a month I've been watching BBC America and some of its wildlife shows. The one that I watched most recently was the Dynasties series. It was very interesting. It had four episodes each one following a different group of animals from a different part of the world over a period of time...long enough to see their changing dynamics, power struggles, life as it unfolds in real time. One was about tigers in India, another about Chimps in Africa, Painted Wolves was another one followed by Emperor penguins in Antarctica. It was one of the most fascinating series I've ever seen. I love wildlife and so does my husband. We've watched many over the years but this made us think deeply about how alike we are...humans and animals. 

The world seem to be increasingly becoming divided...countries, nationalities, races, religions but we forget despite all of these differences we are connected and are similar in so many ways that it is very unfortunate that we've become so segregated. It was even more so obvious when watching these groups of animals live, create their families and even die. 

As humans we all want to be loved, be free, have security, food, families....so do animals. They may not be able to tell that in words like we do or fight for their freedom like we do or protect their families like we do, but boy do they try. I cannot imagine anyone thinking or believing that animals are somehow lesser beings than us. That someone they don't feel. I just don't get a human who cannot feel for another being...no matter what shape or size or species it belongs to. 

It was heartbreaking to watch a pack of pained wolves moaning for the young ones that were killed by hyenas. It was even more hard to hear that when the female who was leading the pack for years left the pack to die in the lion territory but she was not alone because her partner too stayed with her. They both died. Can you believe that such loyalties exist in the animal realm? Perhaps  it is not their active choice but a long suppressed desire to stay with those you have strong bonds to the end...what we call an instinct. It was amazing to see the Emperors bring up their littles ones. A mother and a father putting themselves at great risk to protect and hatch an egg. To bring a youngling to independence. Don't we do that with out own children? Just because they don't feel like we do and perhaps are able to articulate why and how their do things and feel does not mean they don't in some archaic way feel the pain, sorrow and fear and at the sometime joy and freedom. 

We are truly born free.....free from the shackles of others. Perhaps we are born into our own shackles but certainly not of others...but as we grow and move in groups, humans and animals like for the most part, there is an interplay that is good, loving and protective but at the same time scary and fearful and destructive. I saw that in these creatures watching this series. I also know that from my own experience and that of other humans, that we too go through these phases. Whether we want to accept these things as common is up to us but the reality of that these things exist is undeniable. 

I think to cherish life is to cherish all living beings. No matter who they are, what they are. To believe in the sanctity of life is to believe that it applies to all creatures. I am so confused who humans create so much separation and that we put blinkers that make us stupid and see only one side of the story.