Lions

(Originally written September 23, 2009)

I spent about an hour in the feeding cage of the big cat department at the zoo yesterday. There were so many things to observe other than the obvious: their living situation, how it was florescent lit, the lack of circulating air. It was a prison more or less. Everything was grey, green and it smelled of meat and shit and hay.

Though being in the presence of these incredible creatures, was something very special, I was standing in the centre of the room surrounded by the largest species of cats in existence, watching them eat. Lion, Siberian tigers, white tigers, jaguars, some lynx all together in one room. At least 20 different ones surrounded me gnawing at meat roaring at each other. There’s something inherently sexy and attractive about these massive animals. And despite their living situations, and although their dignity has been stripped away from them, they exuded a type of confidence and an instinctual quality that so many of go one in life searching for. They could be in any situation in a prison and still just BE.

Of course I couldn’t tell what they are roaring each other. I could make the assumption that it was about hunger, but I’d like to think it was something complicated. I felt this sense of camaraderie and respect they had for each other. And if for a moment I thought what chaos it would bring if I let them all out. That little shock may be what we need. We are constantly under the gaze of what others think or see, or basically how everything is HYPER observed. But is that good for us? Look at how miserable the lions are. We know too many words, descrīptive terms, we can classify everything, separate them into categories, and put everything in its apparent correct place but it is what we need in life? I really hope not. After all who wants to be a huge lion stuck in a cage at the end of the day.