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 |   Reflections and ruminations from a modern day Alice - Life is Wonderland |
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Reflections and ruminations from a modern day Alice - Life is Wonderland  Welcome to the place were I chronicle my own falls down dark holes and adventures chasing white rabbits! Come on In, Take a Bite, You Never Know What You May Find... "Curiouser and curiouser." Alice in Wonderland    |
| "Blogging Circle of Friends " DAY 2236: January 2, 2019 Prompt: My grandmother always said that what you did on New Year's day you would be doing for the rest of the year. What did you accomplish on New Years day? Will you be doing it the rest of the year? Laundry...that is what I spent my New Year day doing...and most certainly what I will be doing for the rest of the year and all the years of my life to come. There will always be laundry...oodles of mismatched socks, soiled doggie diapers, changes of barely worn clothes discarded by my fickle daughter and sodden towels left on the floors and draped over the backs of chairs. There will always be damp swimsuits and grass-stained jeans. There will always be grease covered sweatshirts and hairy, smelly doggie beds. It will never end for me. I know this with a rare certainty. For the most part, I embrace the chore. There is something satisfying from turning a heap of dirty, soiled garments into a fresh, crisply folded pile of clean clothes and towels. I feel accomplished once the various laundry baskets are emptied and all the cleaned laundry is put away again. No matter that the baskets don't stay empty, or that the dirty cast offs sometimes fall just short of the basket's wide, easily accessible maw. This is my task to bear, mostly because entrusting it to another member of my household would certainly spell disaster; like the time my visiting mother-in-law managed to shrink all three of my pairs of maternity pants, or the time I found my husband had folded and put away an entire load of laundry that was still damp.  So yes, this New Years..and all on those blessed ones to come...there will be laundry. "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" Day 1843 January 2, 2019 Prompt: "Open a volume and next comes fragrance: fresh, green and inky if it's new or a bit dusty and aged like a grandfather's cozy den" Which do you like better, new books or old books? This is a tough call. I have always loved the texture and smell of old books. Near my new home there is place called the Book Barn that has a seemingly endless series of rooms and outbuildings filled with books. Some of them are very old volumes, their covers mottled with mold. I love looking at those books, imagining all the hands they've traded to and from over the years. Then there is a this inherent joy with cracking the spine of a new book, that fresh ink smell and the crispness of pages not yet thumbed through. I love being the first person to take a new book out of the library. It feels like a secret privilege of sorts. I have never wanted an e-reader for these reasons, there is something so tactility satisfying about reading physical books that you loss with those electronic devices. |
| 30-Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT January 2nd I’m 24 today! Write about your most memorable birthday. I'm fast approaching the "45" milestone so I have a lot of birthday celebrations to look back over. Overall, many of the ones I can most remember are marked by disappointment. They stand out in memory because they take place during darker times in my life when celebrating anything seemed inappropriate and misplaced somehow. I'm sure many of my childhood birthdays were fun-filled and joyous, I seem to recall them in a collective blur of merriment but I couldn't pick out one with any clarity and be able to name it my "most memorable". Oddly enough, the birthday I would pick is one I can remember very clearly for being the first birthday in a long time I felt was entirely about me. It was not tainted by the demands of a co-dependent ex or an addict brother. I'm not sure I really remember if I was turning 33 or 34 honestly, the age wasn't what made it so special. It was just the first birthday in a series of birthdays when I didn't feel guilt or distraction or pain or disappointment. I had started dating the man I would eventually marry and he had surprised me with a birthday weekend in Newport, RI. He'd booked us a room at the Bayberry Inn, a lovely B&B just outside town that had richly appointed rooms with fireplaces and Jacuzzi tubs. He had wine and chocolate covered strawberries waiting for me at the room. We dressed up and went to a beautiful birthday dinner at Castle Hill Inn. Castle Hill is just about the most scenic place in Newport, a grandiose mansion perched on top of a high with a perfect night sky view of the Newport bridge. That birthday I felt like I began to finally breathe again. I took great big gulps of grateful air and felt good, I felt hopeful. I'm not sure my husband even knows how significant that particular birthday celebration was in my life. It felt like a beginning, not just for our relationship, but the beginning of me taking back a life I was living too much for others. |
| 30-Day Blog Challenge PROMPT January 1st HAPPY NEW YEAR! What is your opinion of New Year’s Resolutions? Do you make them? Do you keep them? New Year's Eve is not my favorite holiday. It is the celebration that marks the end of the cherished holiday season and it serves as a harbinger for that wave of the post-Christmas let-down depression that I always experience. As a result, I never banked much on the New Year's traditions. I rarely stay up to watch the ball drop these days and I resist the urge to make those resolutions. I've always felt that any promises made in the wake of something significant ending are infused with too much pressure, too much hype to have any real chance at success. Instead I work hard to connect with the positive aspects of the coming new year. I take comfort in what I can formally leave behind once the calendar rolls over and the new slate begins. I might not make resolutions but I set goals for myself...goals with staying power, goals with a lot of leg room. I generally want to write more in 2019. I strive to develop more discipline in my writing, actually more discipline throughout my life. I want to be more conscious of my health, more dedicated to taking care of myself...whatever that ends of coming to mean. I don't make those goals with any midnight-hype, ball-drop enthusiasm but rather a honest desire to be cumulatively better over the span of the next twelve months. |
| Unofficial 30Day Blogging Challenge: Dec 4 Prompt: I live in a place where snow is so rare, I'm amused at snow in a tube- and I'm pretty sure my students would be, too! Give me a list of 12 things you can do with the snow, and be creative (so I don't want typical things like snowboarding, skiing, etc Here in Southern New England, snow can be a challenge. Some years we have so much that we are forced to be creative when dealing with it. One year the totals for cumulative storms were almost two feet. In an effort to make use of all that white stuff, lots of people created igloos, or dug tunnels in the large drifts for their kids or dogs to play in. Around the barn, snow is useful to clean mud (and horse poop) from the pasture off our boots.  Some people used to eat snow but with the climate issues today, I'd hardly recommend that. My dogs however still love a snoot-full of the stuff sometimes! In college, snow was frequently used as a weapon...for pelting friends or for dumping buckets of the white stuff on the heads of unsuspecting roommates while they showered. A few times we witnessed some drunken frat boys turn the snow into a private luge course - throwing themselves headfirst down the covered hill wearing big black garbage bags over their heads as makeshift sleds. During those holiday parties when the fridges get too crowded, a kiddie pool filled with snow makes an excellent auxiliary cooler too. We've not had much significant snow yet so my list is admittedly weak and uninspiring I fear! "Blogging Circle of Friends " DAY 2207 December 4, 2018 Use these random Christmas words in your blog: snowflakes, dolls, wrapping, paper, pine, sales, greetings, and celebrate. Have fun! Sugarplum shook herself free of her wrapping paper bed and stretched the sleep from her limbs. She wondered how long it would take to shake the sent of pine off her now that she opted not to spend the night in the family tree again. Sugarplum cocked her small head and listened to the quiet house. Confirming that the family had all gone, she set about planning her day. Sugarplum started off my cutting snowflakes out of tissue paper. She thought they looked lovely on the windows in little Lauren's room. She left some cheer filled greetings on Matthew's spiral notebook for him to find after school. She rummaged through the sales flyers advertising all the Christmas deals, taking special care to mark the pages with the items from the children's Christmas lists for Sharon and Michael. Sugarplum deftly tiptoed past Ruffles, covering her tiny mouth to keep from laughing at the way he frantically pawed the air in his doggie dream. She rounded out the rest of her day leaving little touches around the house that the family would delight and celebrate upon their return. Sugarplum was very good at her job. As the hours waned and the light beyond the windows darkened, she made her way upstairs to Lauren's room. She settled in among the other dolls to wait for the little girl's return. "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" DAY 1814--December 4, 2018 Prompt: What would improve your hometown? Can you convince your town’s officials to make a change that would improve your neighborhood? We only recently moved to the our new town. Apparently the hot topic issues for most of our new neighbors revolve around trash. We have a town transfer station where residents pay a fee to take their trash. The town has frequently weighed this option verses offering the more expensive option of curbside pickup. The town seems largely divided over the issue, and I'm not sure either side could be convinced one way or another. Certainly, curbside pickup would be easier but it would also cost the residents more in taxes and therefore I am not sure it would serve to improve the neighborhood in general. We are still getting used to this more rural community. We are still learning about life in this community and other than the trash, which people are very vocal about, nothing else has surfaced that I think I could comment on as of yet. |
| 30-Day Unofficial Blogging Challenge Dec 3 PROMPT by(557) Not to pull a Frosty on you or anything, but that snow-person said you built? It just came alive! *Shock2* What happens next? Lola's insistent whining finally pierced the bubble of my spiked eggnog hangover. I sat up too quickly and was rewarded with a jack hammer pain in my right temple. I realized that my days of emblazoned drinking and making merriment with friends were solidly behind me. I thought about calling for Greta but feared the sound of my own voice would betray my tender spirits. Better to not clue my eight year old in on that fact that the party had continued well beyond when she'd been send to bed. I quietly cursed my old friends and slowing swung my feet over the bed and rising up on shaky legs. I opened the bedroom door to the dog's reproachful eyes. "Sorry girl", I said, following her flouncing tail down the stairs. On my way across the kitchen I almost slipped in a puddle of ice cold water. I took another step and my toes once again found an ice puddle. I flicked on the light and saw a series of tiny puddles zigzagging across the kitchen tile. Greta., I thought. Forgetting about my delicate state, I yelled out to her in the general direction of ceiling. What on earth had she been doing this morning? My pounded head barked back at me, angrier with my outburst than I could ever have been about the mess. I reached the slider and let Lola out. She bounded into the snow banks and relieved herself, then proceeded to race about the yard, kicking up the drifts and whirling like a dervish. I watched her mindlessly for a few moments before I noticed something was wrong. The yard looked oddly empty. I rubbed my eyes and peered out again into the snow covered yard. The snow beast. It was missing. Yesterday afternoon Greta and I had spent hours building the creature, which had started as a standard snowman but had quickly morphed into something that resembled a hunched beast, with a disproportionately bulbous head and bright blue pool noodle arms. We topped it off with a wide orange scarf and mop bucket we found in the back of the garage. Greta had painstaking installed two garden stones for its eyes, and a piece of red licorice with candy corn teeth for its mouth. In a last ditch nod to tradition, she used a large carrot for the creature's nose. By the time it was done, it had stood nearly two heads taller than her in an old ratty blue and gray wool coat. It had been an oddly impressive effort and now it was gone. I had the vague recollection of my friends, clutching their cocktails and taking selfies with it in the moonlight. Had one of them knocked it over? I pulled on my boots and trampled out in the yard. There was no evidence it had melted or been stomped on. The coat, scarf and bucket were gone. It was like I had just disappeared. Overnight. I thought briefly about those puddles in the kitchen. Then, ridiculing myself, I went back inside and began to clean up the water. It had to be a prank of some kind. I fired off a text to each of my girlfriends asking who'd taken the snow beast out. I received a flurry of confused responses. I was just reading the last installment when Lola began barking at the slider, it was her alarm bark, punctuated by the sound of her claws frantically dancing across the glass door. It was then, over Lola's racket, that I thought I heard a low growl. Greta padded into the kitchen then. "Mom, what the heck is wrong with Lola?" Greta shouted to the dog and in the brief reprieve of a silenced Lola, that menacing growl came again. My daughter's eyes widened with alarm. We both turned slowly toward the pantry at the rear of the kitchen. One door hung slightly ajar. There in the blackness beyond, we both screamed as we saw something shift in the darkness... "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" DAY 1813--December 3, 2018 Prompt: Seneca said, “A great fortune is a great slavery.” What might such a great fortune be and do you agree with Seneca’s claim? I will very likely never know the burden that great wealth and fortune bring. I believe Seneca's quote is referring to how such things can create an obligation to serve them. It often takes a great energy to amass wealth and to uphold it, even more so. While some fortunes come easily, most are the result of hard work and perseverance and ultimately sacrifices. I can see how these things might feel like a great slavery to someone, at least in the consuming way people have to work to keep what they have earned. Given that, I believe many people would forgo a massive fortune if it required them to sacrifice other aspects of life, like falling in love, or raising a family, or pursuing a passion. Life has to be about more than material wealth, or else what is the point of the journey? "Blogging Circle of Friends " DAY 2206 December 3, 2018 Do you prefer homemade gifts or store bought? Do you exchange food gifts? Clothing? Or Gift cards? Each holiday season I come to the inevitable feeling that gifts, the commercial kind, ultimately cheapen the spirit of Christmas. Everyone loves presents I know but the bustle and grind of shopping coupled with the anxiety of gift-giving, can sometimes be a real damper. I had opted more and more to give gift cards. Even though they tend to be impersonal, I feel like the thought counts. I want my gifts to ultimately be useful and therefore appreciated. Maybe my gift card means an extra special coffee treat on a day when they could really use it but can't justify the expense? Or, maybe there is something they've been eyeing and my gift card gives them the chance to get it for themselves? I wish I was a crafty person because there is also something really appealing about homemade gifts. I like it when someone makes me something, there just feels like there in more sentiment behind a present someone makes with their own two hands. I am planning to make some homemade Christmas candies with my daughter this year. Our plan is to distribute them to some of our neighbors in our new neighborhood. I think it will help with the whole "season of giving" sentiments that sometimes I fear the holidays can lack. I want Christmas to be a time of family and charity for my daughter. When she finally outgrows Santa and the Elf of the Shelf, I want her to see that the real magic of Christmas is about believing in those values and spreading them out into the world. |
| 30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT November 30th What is one new fact you learned about a fellow blogger this month? I typically kicked off my weekday mornings by pulling up the prompt and trying to write in that quiet space of time before my co-workers start showing up. The office is vacant and the water cooler is the only thing making noise. It has been a great time, really my only time, when I could focus on the challenge and the work of my fellow bloggers. I have tried to read mostly every blog, even on the days I wasn't myself contributing. I have learned about bloggers who were new to me that I have since favorited. It has feel more like a community to me this past month and I have really needed that connection. Writing can be such a solitary practice by nature and so knowing that my fellow bloggers have been out there, and have taken the time to read and comment on my blogs, has been very uplifting and encouraging. I struggled with some of the prompts, others came more easily. There were some days I just wanted to take a pass, and others when I pushed myself after reading some of the other entries. It was good to be part of something like this - perhaps, dare I say it - it might have even given me a push toward the discipline I so need to develop as a writer. It was not so much that I learned one thing about a single blogger, but more that I learned a lot from the group at large. Again, that sense of community...the willingness for my fellow bloggers to share and then take the time to read and comment on my writing...was a connection I didn't know I needed this month. Even though I never managed to do all the prompts, my Monday-Friday routine became a staple for me that I really worked toward. Thank you for hosting and for the prompts and thanks to my fellow bloggers to whom I have enjoyed reading these past 30 days. Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday season! |
| 30Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT November 29th On this last Wildcard Thursday of the month, make me a list of prompts to add to the Challenge War Chest for future rounds of the 30DBC. What has been your favorite day of the week, and why? Some days I just struggle...today is one of those days. I'm just not feeling it, not trusting what will come out if I let it - maybe its a touch of seasonal depression although this is very typically a time of year when I am feeling upbeat and hopeful. Whatever the reason I can already tell I'm going to be less than impressive about coming up with a list of prompts but I'm gonna try.... * Musically Speaking: How important is the role of music in your life, in your creative process? Do you write to music? If so, what kind and why do you think that helps? *“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” —Ernest Hemingway...How do you feel about this quote by a writer many consider a master. Who are some other writers you admire and consider masters? *You've been given a full budget and creative license to bring a novel you read to film, what novel would you pick and who would you cast as the characters? I got three...a fairly weak contribution but I did try to make them quality over quantity at least! As far as my favorite day of the week..without a doubt it is Sunday. Sunday is my day to catch up on family stuff, getting my house back in order after the hectic week. I love making breakfast while listening to NPR early when I have the kitchen to myself. I enjoy the rumbling of the dryer as I get the week's laundry done and sorted. The domesticity of a Sunday is very appealing to me. I usually cap off the day by making a big meal, something that's spend the afternoon roasting and filling up the home with enticing smells. |
| 30Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT November 27th Do you have any "weird" tastes in food? Carrots and ketchup? Peanut butter and ice cream? Watermelon and salt? Can you convince us to try your odd food combo? I had to think about this prompt for a while because I wasn't sure I could come up with any examples of weird tastes in my food repertoire. Even when I was pregnant, I don't recall any cravings that would be considered odd. I did sustain on a lot of grilled cheese and McDonald's vanilla soft serve ice cream to quell the horrendous heartburn I suffered with until my daughter's birth. Those choices were out of my normal consumption patterns but not what I would consider "weird" tastes. I'm fairly adventurous with food, I like trying new things. I enjoy eating and cooking dishes from many different cultures. The term "weird" strikes me as being a relative one. What I might consider a weird food choice or delicacy, another person could have grown up eating it as a familiar and normal meal for them. I spent a lot of time in Mexico with my ex-husband. It was entirely common to see his young nephews running about with a bag of chapulines, (chapulines are roasted crickets dosed in copious amounts of chile and lime) crunching and snacking to their heart's delight. It was something they grew up eating and while I would politely and emphatically decline their offers to share, I was never offended by their choice of snack. It wasn't weird or strange for them so it never resonated that way with me either. I do like several things that might be considered more acquired tastes perhaps. I'm an avid fan of asparagus. I liked mine roasted with lemon and feta cheese. I love roasted kale...although, admittedly, it has a very noxious odor while cooking it. I really like brussel sprouts, tossed in olive oil and dusted with some Parmesan cheese and powered garlic...even better when roasted with mozzarella and bacon! I will eat most sushi but steer clear of eel, urchin and those big orange spheres of salmon roe. There is nothing better than a really good grade of tuna steak chopped and tossed with salt, lime and avocado in a fresh tartare. As far as some of the cooking ventures...I've yet to be able to convert many people beyond my immediate family to partake some of my Turkish dishes - like the one with cool pasta in a garlic yogurt sauce with a pepper paste relish. I find food interesting though, and I'm looking forward to reading some of the other blogs on this topic. |
| 30 Day Blogging Challenge PROMPT November 21st Is there a TV show/movie/book from your childhood that you still enjoy today? Tell us why it resonates with you. It may just be the seasonal nostalgia, but the classic Christmas movies I watched as a child, still number among my most favorites. I loved introducing my daughter to the original animated Grinch, or those quirky stop-action clay films like Rudolph and Frosty. She loves them, will watch them eagerly year after year. Recently we watched the original "A Christmas Story" and she laughed at Ralphie in his bunny suit and covered her mouth in mock horror when the Bumpus hounds ate the father's Thanksgiving turkey. I marvel at how dated some of the films are but they are such classics that they tradition drives you to watch them with delight time and time again. They come out with new Christmas movies every year but its these old standards that top the list for me, and my daughter. I find them comforting and familiar and those are sentiments I can appreciate in a world that seems increasing hostile and unsettled all the time. |
| 30-Day Blogging CHallenge PROMPT November 20th SeaWorld. Good? Bad? Ugly? What is your opinion of zoos and aquariums? I'm not usually one to re-purpose blogs but this topic is one I wrote about exactly back in 2013 and my opinions have not changed. I don't think there is anything more I could add or change so I'm sharing the original blog from October 2013 which was inspired after I watched the CNN aired, "Blackfish" film. It was very thought-provoking for someone for whom Seaworld was such an influential experience in my youth. The only element of this original blog that is date is the mention of Tilikum, who has since died. October 25th 2013 Blackfish - a personal take on a global movement CNN debuted Blackfish last night and I watched it. I also watched a few of the post-viewing panel shows immediately following the broadcast. I'm still digesting everything this morning. First and foremost, I admit, without any real shame, that I am a child of Seaworld. My parents took us there as children, at least a few times. For me, it only took that first visit to convince me that my true calling was to be a Seaworld trainer. My siblings became brilliant surrogates for orcas and dolphins as I practiced what I believed to be, the skill set of my destined career. The fact is, I fell in love at Seaworld. I fell in love with the sounds, the smells, those shiny multi-toned wetsuits, the animals and in particular, those Killer whales. I believed along with the millions of other people, that this place was magical. I raised my hand as high as I could, praying along with every other child, that I would be the one selected to go up and meet Shamu. The experiences I had at Seaworld were the foundation for a lifelong fascination with the ocean and the inspiration for my pursuit of marine biology for at least a large part of my educational life. My attraction to the orcas in particular fueled a field focus on apex predators in general and instilled in my a passion to understand and learn more about their important roles in the ocean's complex ecosystem. Seaworld was responsible in many real ways for the wonderful and enriching opportunities and experiences I had during my years of study: my stint as a High School aquanaut, my trips to Australia and New Zealand as part of youth science exchange, my Semester at Sea on a beautiful schooner and floating science lab, my semester of study in Hawaii on the big Island and so much more. While my friends were asking for cars for graduation, I was pleading for permission to do cage dives with Great Whites off the coast of California or camp out with the Orca pods in British Columbia. In summation, Seaworld turned on something inside me that may have forever lain dormant and unexplored. I can not help but think about that truth when I see the posts and hear the calls to boycott Seaworld as Blackfish is released to the world. I am, as a now more educated adult, seriously conflicted. What Blackfish gets so right in this film are the basic facts about these magnificent animals...they are highly intelligent beings, capable of emotion connections and a sense of self-awareness virtually unparallelled in the animal kingdom. They are very social animals that maintain family bonds so strong that individual pods are really family groups that extend into multi generational communities, which researchers have discovered, develop their own habits, language and behaviors over time. These are animals that are known to regularly traverse great distances, hunt in highly evolved pack units and display remarkable problem-solving abilities. In the wild, they routinely react to humans with curiosity and remarkable amenability, never with aggression. It is my belief there is no marine mammal more ill-suited for captivity with the isolation, the lack of adequate space and the obvious restrictions to pursue their natural instincts to hunt, to communicate and socialize or to breed. I saw in Blackfish, that while Seaworld is profiting from these animals, they are also providing a vehicle for exposure for generations like mine to see, and in some cases, touch these amazing animals. Without Seaworld, would we even know how much we could deeply care for Killer Whales? Without Seaworld, would we even be able to know or care why their captivity is so inherently wrong? I don't believe so. The trainers and animal custodians that participated in this film were clearly moved by the animals in their care, driven to protect them and form relationships, meaningful ones with them. I believe the vast majority of their peers feel exactly the same. Seaworld is not simply the corporate giant, the money-machine...it is also a collection of people brought together by their love for these animals. When accidents happen, they are heartbroken both for the loss of human life as well as for the impact on the animals. When they talked about separating the mothers from their babies, there was guilt and anger as well as sorrow and a very common grief. If you took a cross-section of people at Seaworld at all levels, you would find far more good, caring and concerned people than bad. I have to believe that. So what's the answer? Boycotting Seaworld? Releasing the all captive Killer whales and their biological cousins around the world? I'm not sure I could answer today with any certainty. However, there are some things I support very strongly in the wake of viewing this film. #1. Seaworld should cease any and all captive breeding practices. These animals are not breeding spontaneously. They are being farmed, artificially inseminated. Worse, Seaworld is introducing the bond and then routinely severing it by removing the calves from their mothers. Anyway you look at this, given the maternal and familial bonds these animals form, this is moral and ethically wrong. The Killer whale population, as far as I know, is not threatened by extinction. There is no reason, outside of sheer profitablity, to make these animals reproduce. Most states have banned puppy mills, isn't this not the same evil on a much grander scale? At the moment, this is by far the biggest problem I have with Seaworld. #2. Seaworld should take a cue from some of the most respected zoological facilities in the world...develop actual habitats designed around the animal's care and comfort - not pools and tanks largely not updated over the last 30 years. Animals should be showcased for their natural beauties and abilities...don't ride them, don't make them do ridiculous tricks and behaviors that would never been seen in the wild. Wouldn't people be awed to see them up close, just being? - do we really need the music, the fanfare and spectacle to be impressed? No. I tell you this, just being on the other side of a viewing pane when an 11000lb Orca cruises by and locks eyes with yours...that's enough for most human beings to be awed, to fall in love. Seaworld recently responded that the concept of sea pens, ocean corrals were not suited for long-term care without stating any reasoning at all for that determination. So why not? Release at this point is not realistic nor in the best interest for many of these whales, so why not move them to a place that is more reminiscent of their habitat? Give them real seawater, the chance to catch their own food. The chance to live out their lives as close to naturally as they can. #3. There a many ocean parks and aquariums around the world, perhaps none with the same resources available to Seaworld. Why not make the switch more toward actual education and conservation? Engagement is key here so ask the public to be involved as more than simply spectators. Educate first, starting with the staff. One of the most startling revelations for me in the film is when a senior trainer admits that once she left Seaworld and begin to seek knowledge about the whales, she realized that she really knew nothing about the animals she had trained. She knew how to train them, but not anything about them. Seaworld is missing an opportunity to be an innovator in change and conservation, they need only restructure, reassess, reapply talents and resources. #4. The current population of captive orcas is a disadvantage. I'm not sure even the most respected marine biologist in the field could predict the changes these animals would have released back into the wild. Would their natural instincts find a way to the surface after their long years of captivity? Would they find adoptive pods that would welcome them as long-lost and distance relatives? Or would they be bullied, isolated, starved? I only know that these parks have created this situation and have the responsiblity to care for them in the best way possible for the animals. Stop breeding them, stop propagating Tilikum's bloodline, - become the moral caretakers of these magnificent animals and do right by them to the extent all the resources allow. If the young ones can be released and tracked, do it. Their survival may hold the key to other Killer whales gaining freedom. I'm not sure if releasing Tilikum is the answer for him...I only know his fate is one that makes me incredible sad. The image of him floating nearly lifeless for hours in his small tank, is tragic. Tilikum was not born with his aggression, it was not his nature. Aggression was nurtured in him, even if it was unintentional. Will I boycott Seaworld? Would I support a worldwide effort to seek the boycotting of Seaworld? I still can't answer that. I will tell you that on a recent trip through Orlando airport while shopping for a gift for my daughter, I eyed the beautiful Seaworld store for a few minutes before passing it by. I can tell you that today, I would not take my daughter there. Ultimately, Seaworld's refusal to participate or respond to Blackfish in any substantial and appropriate manner, has left a bad taste in my mouth. Today I would not buy a ticket or purchase their products. Seaworld is not a zoo, not research facility...its a themepark. I have come to understand that. I believe however that they can change. I believe they have the resources to change for the better. I reserve the right to not condemn them, yet. If I had not be able to walk through those gates, I would have not been fundamentally changed in such a positive way myself. I'm really afraid that closing those gates forever may prove to be a bigger injustice to the future generations into who's hands we will leave this planet and its oceans. |
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