A Kos diarist calls this “the saddest shutdown photo you’ll ever see”. I’d go with poignant instead of sad, but in the “a picture is worth a hundred words” category, it scores a ’10’.
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I think it’s poignant and sad Moe. Definitely one to remember!
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Really tugs the heartstrings doesn’t it Izaak.
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I agree with ‘poignant rather than sad’. We’ve got to clarify our emotions IMO as part of our ‘maturation process’, and ‘sad’ is rather Hallmark/Disney in its simplicity.
I’m fast reaching a ‘bittersweet’ response to zoos – mixed emotions. Human “enjoyment” is not the point, IMO, but human “awe and comprehension” is.
Those who are unlikely to ever travel to distant lands, (and who live affordable travel-distance from cities), can become more aware of majesty of, and to revere, diverse life forms at quality zoos.
Zoos also (painfully to me) may serve as a “gene holding” reservoir for increasingly at risk species. Thinking about both functions (awe and gene holding) leaves me ultimately pessimistic. While we fret about whether or not we “get to enjoy” viewing “exotic” species, (perhaps 10 years from now to include many presently considered “irrelevantly common”), we rip apart earth and its many habitats on all continents!
Don’t mean to be aggressively bleak, but combination of recent reports of climate change, (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/interactive/2013/sep/27/climate-change-how-hot-lifetime-interactive), and superficial examination of mega environmental issues such as Keystone XL, (“jobs” are the LEAST important factor – http://thoughtsfromthewell.wordpress.com/2013/08/10/earths-dilemma-scope-and-pace-of-human-industrially-based-destruction/), cause me to wonder if we humans have any clue at all that in a very real way, our thriving depends on the integrity of “earth wellness”.
As many have observed and attempted to describe, we – all of humanity – seem in the 21stC to have arrived at an ultimate point of “mature or else”. I go beyond “environmental” to Include social, political, economic in this dynamic. Thus, US congressional decisions are relevant, as is US/global international action highlighted here: https://maureenholland.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/give-it-to-malala/).
IMO, the forces creating present and future of the child in the photo require comprehensive critical analysis that must also ask “who is humanity’, “what do we envision when we imagine thriving”, and “what practices might best assure this?”. Some root principles surely must be identified that we can use as our touchstones! (??)
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maggie – sad to say (and in this instance, sad IS the correct word) – as soon as I read ‘bittersweet’ in your comment, the first thing that jumped into my mind was gene repository. Of course you said the same thing too, further down. Not much is an either/or proposition, is it. No matter how black/white some of our brethren beleive the world should be perceived. So yes, as we urbanize all over the planet, more and more young people get their only experience with the rest of the animal world through places like zoos. And it’s important they have that touchstone, even in a forced environment like that.
The zoos of my childhood were places of cages and cruelty. We’ve come a long way in that regard. Not there, but so much better.
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Poignant works. Mitch McConnell or John Boehner might say maudlin.
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Hey bruce, they’d probably call it class warfare or something.
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