When I was a kid, you couldn't step outside after the end of May without seeing lightening bugs. This is the first year in recent memory that there have been as many as my childhood memories seem to recall. But I will say that they make me laugh and giggle when I see them again because when I was kid I knew they were twinkling and blinking just for me.
Recently I got bit by a dog. My father has waged a lenghty battle against dogs for many years because of the dogs that roam and howl and generally disrupt the quiet place he lives. And I've told him for years that there are no bad dogs, just bad owners. And I stand by that with this one coda: There are also bad consumers of dogs. After being bitten, I tried to figure out where I got it in my head that all animals were safe, understood what I was thinking and saying and just generally could be trusted. Here's your answer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=adYbFQFXG0U.
Now the truth is, I knew about Christian and had forgotten. When I was young and apparently impressionable, I read Born Free, a moving memoir of Joy and George Adamson's committment to saving the big cats of Kenya. That story taught me it was okay to love and to believe you were being loved in return. George Adamson, by the way, is the old guy in green shorts near the end of the video. But I forgot one of George's other lessons. As much as George did this
He also carried this
George had a healthy respect for what these animals were physically capable of and still held, too, a deep and abiding love for them. I missed that part of the book and have 16 stiches to prove it. But I don't blame the dog that bit me: I leaned over him putting him by instinct into a subservient and scary position. Which is why George carried a gun when he was with his big cats and people who were strangers to them: He knew an animal will attack if provoked, no matter how well intentioned the human.
1 comment:
I love lightning bugs! Sorry about trouble with Fido!
Amy
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