Shining Spirit

Taking this picture was quite a feat!  I approached very slowly, studying the angles, looking for just the right sun reflection. Then I knelt in front of this beautiful face and stayed motionless until my legs were crying “enough”.  At just the right moment, nose to nose with those piercing eyes, “click” and it was done.  What an amazing face!

Okay, now the real story.  Not long ago, while walking through Tucson’s wonderful Sonoran Desert Museum with my wife, she stopped in front of a canvas poster at the entryway to the outdoor park.   “Look at that beautiful creature”, she said, and I turned to find myself face to face with this stunning image.  Poster, yes.  I took a picture of a picture.  I admit it, and I would give credit to the real photographer if I knew a name, and I would ask that person “how did you feel, what did you think when your eyes met?”  What a thrilling and thoughtful moment that must have been.

I wonder what goes through the brain of an animal like this one as she looks into human eyes?  Impossible to know, yes.  But I can tell you what runs through mine.  A sense of sadness.  A wave of anger.  And I want to say “I’m sorry, beautiful friend, that you and I are not companions on this earth.  I’m sorry that you are prey to my power, an ornament for my sport, an object to control, a nuisance in my land development project.  I’m sorry that your world is shrinking and your children are hungry because my concrete world is expanding, my progress is your problem.  I don’t think this is the way it’s supposed to be.”   I shudder to think that someday the poster may be all that’s left.  Surely this is not the way it was meant to be.

Ask the eyes.