ZOO

V and I took the kids to the zoo today. I was a swirl of excitement and sadness. Excited for my kids to see these wild and beautiful creatures up close. The elephants rooting around a pile of leaves and then playfully tossing them up to watch them come cascading down again. The baby orangutan, clinging to his beloved mama. The penguins. The spider monkeys. The place is ripe with opportunities for language development, connections to animals that we read about, and personal discovery about that great big bad world I'm always babbling about.

But sadness always sets in. We were in the primate section and I locked eyes with a big gorilla. I said, audibly, "Ah....my heart is breaking." Mia, the ever astute girl that she is asked me to repeat what I said. "Why?" she persisted. I explained that seeing these marvelous animals, so like us, trapped in concrete surroundings with all of us watching them, just eats at my heart a bit. I explained that I do see value in caging them. But it's such a selfish value. It's for my benefit. Not theirs. Mia put her hand to the glass and just watched, with those huge eyes.

Life is about conflicting feelings. It's about negotiating situations and being honest that we really don't have the answers. The kids pulled themselves up on the fences and quietly watched their animal friends go about their daily work.

A carousel ride always makes this kid smile. She chose to ride the seat with monkeys. I rode the dolphin next to her.

We rode the train and just before we lurched forward, I caught Luca looking to his daddy for reassurance. For that calming voice to say, "It's all going to be o.k. kid. Just hang on." I guess I needed that reassurance too a bit.