Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Yes....now look!

Yesterday we were at the 'Shell Museum' and small aquarium at Mahabalipuram, with our friend and his son. While they were still engrossed in the shells, Raghav, who was more interested in the aquarium and feeding the fish, pulled me away there.

He was amazed at the 'collection', and was going 'wow' every few minutes, as he moved from one tank to another, admiring each fish's colours, shape and mannerisms, and talking to them like to his friends, while stretching out his palms and fingers against the glass. He was beaming from ear to ear, imagining them trying to suck his fingers and nibbling at them :)

While I enjoyed watching him and his interactions, I was filled with sadness as I thought of what limited freedom they must be enjoying, stuck up in a little rectangular space to call home, when they ought to be 'free' in the oceans and rivers where they really belonged. And I shared my sadness with him, and how that was a reason why I disliked zoos and aquariums.

These were some of the thoughts that flowed through....
  • Zoos and aquariums confine animals/creatures to small spaces, where their freedom is limited.
  • But through the sacrifice of this one creature for each species, if the majority of humans are able to understand them and want to take care of them and protect them, then is it okay to have them?
  • Maybe we need animal communicators to go back and talk to them and tell us what to do and how to do it
  • Everything rests in our seeing....what we can see and how much we can see, now. So there are no right and wrong ways of seeing, but just different kinds of seeing.
"Yes, I know how they must feel or how they would want a bigger space. I too feel that way. But now look...look at them now....how beautiful they are!", he said with his whole body lighting up. And I wondered to myself, how simple and beautiful the 'now' is, if only we learn to be open to it fully. Yes, I do need to see all points of view, look through all the windows that I possibly can, and then, when I have explored that fully and honestly (to myself), the present unfolds in all its glory and beauty....like it did for me through the words of my son.

'Yes.....now look..." is all that I need to do in any given moment. For that is all I have.

1 comment:

  1. I was at the zoo last weekend and had the same thoughts and questions. We saw the tiger through a glass enclosure in such close quarters, and realized that not everyone will have the means and opportunity to go on a wildlife safari. As human beings, we have always been curious to learn about anything and everything. In this case, our quest for knowledge is resulting in the animals living in captivity away from their natural habitat.

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