Date: 2012-08-10
Content:
My son gave me "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel for Christmas in 2008. I found it an engaging novel. The pace of the story fits the storyline, and it's filled with reflections on religion, living with animals, and learning from experience. Two quotes from different parts of the story stuck with me.
This first one reminded me of my own education, both early and ongoing.
"It was my luck to have a few good teachers in my youth, men and women who came into my dark head and lit a match."
This second one touched me because I am now living with a young dog and slowly coming to understand that it's a different species and how easily my unconscious human behaviors can be frightening.
"What you don't realize is that we are a strange and forbidding species to wild animals. We fill them with fear. They avoid us as much as possible. It took centuries to still the fear in some pliable animals -- domestication it's called -- but most cannot get over their fear, and I doubt they ever will. When wild animals fight us, it is out of sheer desperation. They fight when they feel they have no other way out. It's a very last resort."
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