Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Positive Change


Sometimes it feels like I'll never blog again. I've had an eight-day hiatus here, maybe my longest yet, but it isn't for lack of trying. The baby, beautiful boy that he is, is having trouble finding his happy place in the crib at bedtime. He's down, he's up, he's down, he's up, he's hungry, he's down, on and on... By the time I get him to sleep, I'm spent and half-asleep myself.


I think the hardest thing about my motherhood right now is feeling so behind all the time in spite of the fact that I'm always busy. I'm working, I'm thinking, I'm sidestepping disasters, and I'm trying to preserve my sanity. But I'm terribly behind on photo prints, scrapbooks, baby books and other things. I look at Luke and see that he's nearly nine months old and I wonder if I'm going to remember his babyhood at all. And I know his baby book looks bare compared to the others.


I still have hope that I'm going to catch up with all of this in true Erin fashion. I am pretty sure that I will; I just don't know when. Or with what resources. But it'll happen.

* * * * * *

I would be remiss not to write a brief statement tonight on how I'm feeling about the tragic loss of 50 exotic animals up near Zanesville, Ohio, about 50 miles from where I live. For those of you who might not know the story, see MSNBC.

I'm an exotic animal lover. I used to work at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, and it was a magical place. During my relatively short stint there, I climbed into a pen with a Red River hog to interview its keeper, I got to pet the bridge of the nose of a male giraffe named Tsavo and I fed an elephant a "monkey biscuit" (no monkey involved). I had some amazing experiences. And I got to know some tremendous professional animal keepers who I'm sure are in deep mourning tonight.

The loss of animal life is terrible, but I'm in support of Sheriff Matt Lutz and his team for handing the situation with competence, urgency and confidence. The scene in Muskingum County could have been so much worse.

We can all state our opinions, conflicting though they may be, and attack one another for our differences. We can post the grisly, powerful image of the dead animals that escaped the scene and is now plastered all over Facebook. And we can think of the ways in which it might have gone down differently.

But, really, the only thing that makes a bit of sense is to take this tragedy and affect change in the way exotic animals are kept by individuals on private farms in Ohio. We can work together to influence positive change for both humans and animals in a state where, obviously, anything goes. We can be part of the citizenry that stands up for all beating hearts, whether they be human or animal, and for a better tomorrow.

Let's move forward from the horror of this day to make sure this never happens again. Not here. Not anywhere.

2 comments:

  1. Those curls are KILLING me!!!!

    New Follower.

    I was so sad about the Tigers.

    www.someoneinmind.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey! Thanks for the follow! I'll check you out as well. My third, the redhead, has the most amazing curly hair. We're still waiting to see what the baby's does.

    Thanks for the comment!

    ReplyDelete

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