Thursday, October 29, 2020

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2003. Mattie was one and a half years old and was beginning to understand the concept of Halloween. At least that people dressed up for the occasion, however, costumes and Mattie did not go well together. Mattie did not like being constrained, he did not like things on his head, and he disliked anything that made him feel itchy. One day, I took Mattie to Target (Mattie had two favorite stores we could take him to..... Home Depot/Lowes or Target) and put him in the shopping cart. We wheeled around together looking through the store. Then I spotted these cute pumpkin sweat suits. The perfect material for Mattie, and I am so glad I captured that moment in time. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

• number of people diagnosed with the virus: 8,922,632
• number of people who died from the virus: 228,370

My lifetime friend, Karen, sent me this text message today! It featured this charming photo of penguins and the posting on social media that was attached to the photos. I am not surprised Karen sent this to me, as she knows I love animals, but I am also intrigued by grief and how each of us and animals express it. 

Just like me, Karen, also knows that not everything you read about on social media is legitimate. So I told her I would investigate the story behind it. These are such splendid photos, that one could think at first that they were contrived or staged. However, it turns out from just doing a simple Google search on these photos, that many different organizations published the story about the photographer and his incredible photos.  

So what is this a photograph of? These two Fairy Penguins (type of penguin, smaller in stature) were poised upon a rock overlooking the Melbourne skyline. The were standing there for hours, flipper in flipper, watching the sparkling lights of the skyline and ocean. A volunteer approached the photographer and told him that the white one was an elderly lady who had lost her partner and apparently so did the younger male to the left. Photographer Tobias Baumgaertner snapped the touching moment in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, in 2019, but only recently shared the images on Instagram.

The photographer had this to say about the penguins.....

"The way that these two lovebirds were caring for one another stood out from the entire colony. While all the other penguins were sleeping or running around, those two seemed to just stand there and enjoy every second they had together, holding each other in their flippers and talking about penguin stuff.

Pain has brought them together. I guess sometimes you find love when you least expect it. It's a privilege to truly love someone, paradisiacal when they love you back."

One may read the photographer's commentary and say..... how sweet, or HOW DO YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? The thing is that scientists have and continue to study different species and how these animals respond to grief. The elephant for example is a remarkable creature and the herd will not leave a dying elephant until it is dead. The mourning process involves a lot of standing around (not unlike our human wakes), they use their trunks to inspect every part of the body, and elephants do not leave the side of their dead loved one for days. 

I saw our cat Patches experience the loss of Mattie. After Mattie died, Patches slept on Mattie's bed and basically spent her days in his room. Something she never did before when Mattie was alive. I also observed our neighbor's dog, JJ, who came to our front door every day for months. Waiting to see his friend. JJ even slept with one of Mattie's sandals. Having these personal experiences enables me to believe the beauty and sentiment captured in these photos of these two penguins left behind. It is hard to be a survivor, knowing that the one you loved most in life is gone. How do you go on? As our penguin friends illustrate in such a meaningful way, you turn to nature and to others for comfort, re-connection to the world, and to be understood. A lesson that is too precious to forget and should guide us in our every day lives.