Throughout our remembered history, there have been a number of people who put themselves into the wild, into the path of danger, in order to interact with plants, animals, and others of the natural world. The danger sometimes wins, as in the case of Timothy Treadwell and other notables such as Steve Irwin. But sometimes, these crazy nature nuts live long, successful lives. One that comes to mind is Jeff Corwin, animal and nature conservationist who ran an Animal Planet children's television show and now lives a quiet life with his family and his gobs of money. Some might say that these folks are crazy for putting themselves in the way of danger (even Jeff Corwin had a bad experience in which an elephant threw him into a pond and he blacked out), but aren't we a part of the animal kingdom as well? Human beings are pretty high up on the food chain so shouldn't the bears, manta rays, and elephants run from us? A poster that I came across for The Grizzly Man reads "In nature there are boundaries. One man spent the last thirteen years of his life crossing them." In my opinion, this is what it all boils down to. These people do what they do for a good cause - they truly mean well. Yet, there are boundaries and they cross them, good reason or not. Our ancestors had enough respect for the power of these animals to avoid them, and we should too, lest we follow the tragic path of Timothy Treadwell.
Tony Schroth
No comments:
Post a Comment