Parental insight or "What do lions eat?"
I have had this thought banging around inside my head for the last two weeks.
It's about parental insight-or the little nuggets of wisdom that a parent might give you -that you never forget.
After the Eight Belles incident at the Kentucky Derby there was a real ground swell of opinions about horses, racing and the people involved. Every opinion was valid and it made me think about something that my dad told me years ago while we were watching a nature show.
The program was about lions and how they lived in Africa. The program got into how they hunt in packs to assure the pride gets food. During one scene an animal was stalked, killed and eaten.
I was really irritated that these cats brutally chased this animal down and killed it by biting it's neck. (This was before I got a C-A-T, of my own.)
I turned to my dad and said, "I really hate lions!"
He turned to look at me and said, "What do lions eat?" "Lions have to eat...."
He went back to watching the program and I sat there dumbfounded.
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He gave me a vocal slap to the head by telling me-in so many words- that it really doesn't matter what I think, when it's about nature and life.
In the years since, I have learned to look at things from a few different angles, It not always clear what you see. from where you are at.
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This came back to me when I saw the advert for the National Geographic special "Battle at Krueger" (?). It's the film of some kind of African buffalo that is attacked by a watering hole. A pack of lions grab it next to the shore, an alligator pops out of the water and tries to take away their meal...I really didn't want to see this buffalo get eaten by either one, so I passed on the show.
I just saw the last part of the special on a news program.
The whole pack of buffalo come to the aid of the victim! They charge the lions who have this baby pinned down and save it from being devoured.
Well,
I guess I didn't bother to follow dear old dad's advice and look at the program from start to finish-I figured it was just a matter of "What lions eat".
Dad's been gone for a while now, but seeing that film made me think about his parental insight about the eating habits of African lions and not being too
emotional when it comes to life.
I just wish he was here, so I could say to him, "Hey, the lions are going to bed hungry tonight!".;)
