Before and After

BEFORE


AFTER








Comment from my father:
"How is it that you are able to be "silently dismayed" for being unable to witness "ecology in action" while, on the other hand, you lable the injured hapless prey as "the poor little lonely, terrified, and wet calf"?? I think there is a soft-hearted human inside the researcher's green refrigerator suit."


Tis true...I am not a completely heartless ecologist.  It is hard to see the life taken away from an innocent, young grazing animal that never hurt a soul.  Seeing the aftermath is much easier than watching the wolves take the calf.  But if its going to happen anyways....

Comments

  1. These last two posts blow me away. They really get to the heart of what it means to be an impartial observer of "Nature, red in tooth and claw" -Alfred, Lord Tennyson (I just looked it up.)

    I like this passage (below) that I found just a few lines above that famous phrase in Tennyson's lengthy poem on callous, impartial nature. It seems appropriate here:

    "Are God and Nature then at strife,
    That Nature lends such evil dreams?
    So careful of the type she seems,
    So careless of the single life;

    That I, considering everywhere
    Her secret meaning in her deeds,
    And finding that of fifty seeds
    She often brings but one to bear,

    I falter where I firmly trod,[...]"

    That falterer would be me! I don't mean this in a religious sense, just in the sense of being at peace (I thought) with what Nature dishes out. Though I have no qualms about the thing in principle, I have to admit feeling a bit conflicted, looking at these images.

    It's awfully neat, though, getting to see what actually goes on up there through your eyes. Thanks for keeping it real.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Seeing those pictures - is that sarcastic, ironic, sad or just natural? Well, I guess it is the circle of life!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment