The Perspective of Sharing a Planet
On page 5 of today's paper, above the fold, a seemingly appealing photograph. I suppose perspective is everything. There are two little boys in the photograph, one sitting on a tricycle, the other standing beside the first, arms folded across his chest, both beaming bright smiles. They stand in their backyard, in Golden, British Columbia. There is a trailer and a boat behind the little boys. And what appears to be, at first glance, a fair-size cat, stretched out in front of the boys. You know how sometimes when a photograph is taken from a certain angle perspective becomes warped and what's at the forefront appears to be unrelated in size to what is in the background?The newspaper item recounts the story of the two little boys who had returned from a fishing expedition on Easter Monday, back home. The older of the two boys, brothers, is six. When he walked into his family's garage he was confronted by the presence of a strange, large animal; a cougar, as it happened. The cougar, surely startled at the child's sudden appearance, seemed to be clawing at the floor, the child said. With great presence of mind, the little boy backed out of the garage, collected his younger brother from the fenced yard and ran with him up the garage's outer stairs into the safety of a room over the garage.
From there the little boy called out to his parents, both of whom were in an office above a shop on the family property. His father ran down to the garage, not quite believing what his son had called out to him. The animal, obviously frightened by his own encounter with a strange species, had left the garage but was still inside the fence at the edge of the family's property. The RCMP was called. They cornered the cougar and they shot it.
The little boy was brave and behaved like a smart little kid, thinking of his own safety, and that of his brother. He took immediate action and in so doing, averted a situation which might very well have turned out to be starkly inimical to both children. The parents of these two children have a right to feel relieved at the outcome of what could have been a tragic situation for them. They have a right to feel proud of the actions of their son.
So what's wrong with this picture? One's eyes, after reading the story, adjusts to the new perspective. That is not an enlarged-seeming photograph of a domestic cat asleep in the sun with two little boys directly behind it, grinning broadly. It is, instead, a photograph of a magnificent wild animal, two proud little boys posed in the near background. The animal is dead, the children are safe.
The joy of safeguarding children does not excuse the crass, gruesome nature of posing two children behind the truly sad carcasse of a once-proud and majestic creature of nature which had the dire misfortune of wandering into an environment inimical to its survival.
posted by Pieface @ Wednesday, May 24, 2006
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