Which of these would you rather be?

On a dark winter morning at 3 AM
Customarily roused from sleep
Wide awake while another slept in peace
I was, its fair to say, surprised to see
That all the restless beating of my heart
Said there was a poem inside of me

"I looked at the mirror
She looked right back at me
And just as I was about to start
She beat me to it and asked like the wind carefree
'The thing loved or the loving thing-
Which one of these would you rather be?'"

One for solace

(P.S. Holy Cow would like to add that the photo above was taken by Rattlesnake- a cousin from distant lands- when the two of them were spending a rainy afternoon on Rajpath. This fact was of course brought to her attention by the said cousin, who recognised the photo as one he took. Holy Cow had just assumed she had taken it, given her liking for mainas and such, and bit her tongue a little when truth was revealed :-p )

More despair at our species

The world recently lost a one eyed, three legged dog named Gus to cancer. The little creature had been given the title of the "Ugliest Dog in the World" by the most confusing and mind numbingly weird species on earth- Human Beings.

He beat several other canines to win the title apparently. I mean, let's just take a look at what we're saying here and admonish ourselves. A dog competed against other dogs for the title of the world's ugliest dog.

Admit it. You haven't heard anything sillier. You and I both know that he didn't wake up one day, look in a mirror, conclude he had a fairly good chance and saunter off to sign up for the pageant.

It's a shame indeed that beauty has come to be associated in the human world by one's physical appearance.* But when we apply our own questionable standards to poor creatures of the animal kingdom, and judge them by the same, it really leaves me grasping in vacuum for something to say.

I don't know what drives human beings to act this way towards animals. Dressing them in people's clothes, making them participate in ugliness contests, getting them married to each other...

Camus once said that man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.

Is that why we can't stand the fact that there are wonderful creatures who are quite at peace with being what they are?

Is it envy that drives people to humanise animals?

I like to think so. It's much more a reflection of reality than the alternative that comes to my mind...

Pity.

*Reminds me of a poem I read recently. Allow me to share.

A young spring-tender girl

combed her joyous hair

'You are very ugly' said the mirror

But,on her lips hung

a smile of dove-secret loveliness,

for only that morning

had not the blind boy said,

"You are beautiful"?

-- Spike Milligan

Dawn breaks with sounds of running water and birds chirping,

as if all geared up

to get started on a new day.

Everywhere but here,

there seem to be signs of life finding a way.

This world of dew

This world of dew
is only a world of dew
- and yet

.....

A world of dew,
and within every dewdrop
a world of struggle

(Issa)