We all awoke to the news today of 12 people shot to death and 38 others wounded at a movie premiere of the action thriller, "The Dark Knight" in Aurora, Colorado.
The 24-year-old gunman of the movie theater attack was arrested.
But it will be a long time, if ever, we understand the motivations and causes behind such random and unspeakable violence and crime. Its doubtful the disturbed perpetrator himself understands or has any insight into what exactly propelled him into such mayhem, desperation and mass murder.
Violence, bullying, crime and death seem to be words ingrained into our culture and daily language.
They are subjects of many (or most) movies and TV shows. They are usually the headliners of nightly news broadcasts.
When we are not focused on the violence, wars and crimes of the day, we are typically obsessed with exercise, food, health, "staying young," looking good, "having fun," celebrity oggling, making money, "beating the competition" and being the "strongest, mightiest and toughest" we can be.
There seems to be a relentless search for dominance and control.
And yet, even if achieved, are these formulas for joy, happiness and peace of mind?
The more you "control," the more you have to control. And even if you manage to obtain some kind of "dominance" in a chosen field of professional or hobby endeavor, there is the stress of trying to maintain it. There is, after all, always someone coming down the pike who can be smarter, more talented, younger, fitter, or stronger than you who can topple you in a New York minute.
As for control, that seems more illusion than anything else. Just when you think you have mastered "control" over almost every aspect in your life, you could find yourself sitting in a movie theater one evening and boom, it is suddenly over in the blink of an eye.
When learning of the movie theater killings today, my initial sense was similar to that when learning of the New York City goose massacres last week.
Loss. A profound sense of loss and mourning.
Day by day, little by little, we seems to be losing something.
But what exactly is that "something" putting aside actual and physical body counts of animals or people?
In sharing a few comments with others on a goose facebook page this morning, I groped for the word that best matched what was felt being lost and one word suddenly popped into my head.
A word rarely spoken or heard these days. A word idealized and practiced even less.
"Tenderness."
Tenderness is what best describes my feelings when being around geese in Central Park each evening. Tenderness, innocence, peace, freedom and a certain kind of mercy for the plight of these very maligned animals, who, in New York City and elsewhere have been endlessly harassed, persecuted and killed as if they mattered for nothing -- certainly to the point "resident geese" will eventually become extinct in New York City.
The main reason for these killings is a sense of "control." Control over the skies, water, land, grass or "salt marshes."
When did we ever get the idea that it is necessary to dominate and "control" all of these things -- including nature itself?
Aren't geese a part of nature?
Another woman on the goose Facebook page described how she no longer sees geese "flyovers" over her Brooklyn home each morning and evening as she used to, a sight she says used to bring a sense of joy to her. Said the writer:
" I truly believe that since they "removed" , well ok, SLAUGHTERED, these beautiful birds, they also slaughtered my joy as they no longer fly over my house....an unspeakable joy that has left me incredibly sad....and not just me but my neighbors as well. I feel my property value has gone down, since that was the best part of living here. To see it every morning and evening, like clockwork. I've been incredibly sad since this first happened in 2010."
Though not saying in actual words, the writer seems to feel a sense of loss and perhaps emptiness, where once life had been so freely celebrating flight across the skies.
I fear the same will eventually happen in and over Central Park though as noted throughout this journal, we still have a few dozen resident geese eking out survival at New York City's premier park.
So far, Central Park's geese have not been targeted for a USDA "cull." But, I wonder for how long that will remain? And even if CP's geese are not actually rounded up one day and gassed (or slaughtered) will harassment eventually send them to one of the targeted locations (as probably occurred to the geese from Prospect Park over the past two years) or will we eventually lose them to attrition?
Like the writer of the posted comment, I feel the same sense of loss when going to Harlem Meer over the past few months. Without geese, there is a certain void and emptiness in the location despite the fact that a couple of dozen ducks still remain.
I love the quirkiness and moxie of the ducks, but I miss the tenderness and sense of innocence and dignity that the geese so engendered. Harlem Meer is simply not the same without the geese.
Fortunately, I have only to go to the Boat Lake or Reservoir to still see "my" geese, but I wonder -- and fear how long that will remain?
Day by day, little by little.
Certain words in the English language rarely used, emulated or practiced almost to the point of disappearing from modern communications.
And the animal perhaps most reflective and symbolic of those words, little by little being systematically destroyed and also vanishing.
In all our mad and endless searches for control, dominance, strength, youth, vitality, and "winning" will we one day wake up to find we lost something valuable and precious along the way?
Or rather, that we systematically destroyed it?
Surely, neither tenderness nor mercy were to be found anywhere at a certain Colorado movie theater last night.
Nor were they to be found at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge last week -- a place that was ultimately anything but a "refuge."
Will "refuge" too, disappear from our language one day?
That too, was not to be found last night. -- PCA
*******
No comments:
Post a Comment