TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2023, LIKE A CAGED LION

 TUESDAY, JULY 18, 2023. LIKE A CAGED LION

Yesterday I was writing about seeing the local sites - and I mentioned the Beaver Park Zoo in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  

As I remember the Beaver Park Zoo, was a very small zoo - a cage for monkeys, a large cage for two bears, a few other pens - fox, skunk, raccoons, and a large cage for Leo the Lion.  

I don’t know or don’t remember the history of Leo the Lion.  Did the zoo buy him?  Did some residents donate Leo to the zoo?  I imagine he was an older lion.  While I’ve seen nature shows, that seem to indicate that female lions are the better hunters and males tend to be lazy animals, I’m not sure that is true.  But at the Beaver Park Zoo, Leo fits the lazy part.  Of course, if you are in a three-sided concrete enclosure with a heavy chain link wall in front of you, I think you’d be on the lazy side.  There wasn’t much there - a pond for Leo to cool off, a couple of logs to lay on, and a sliding steel door at the back of the enclosure (I suppose for Leo to sleep and where the zookeeper could enter with food).

Leo might occasionally roar.  I remember it as being loud - like you would expect from a lion.  But, mostly, Leo just sat there and let families see a real lion.  

Now, I’m talking about the 1950s.  There were three television stations in Cedar Rapids, all in black and white.  You did see pictures of animals in books, but to see (and smell) a real lion at the zoo was an event.  In 1958 when the Safety Patrol Crossing Guards had their annual picnic at the Beaver Park Zoo, the kids would try to aggravate Leo so he would roar, but didn’t make much of an impression on an old lion in a concrete cage.  

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I’m guessing Leo was older.  I don’t know if lions have memories, but if Leo did, maybe he would remember being a lion cub and playing with the other lion cubs.  Maybe he could remember stalking his first antelope or savoring the feast after a kill.

But, now, Leo was an old lion in a concrete cage.  Maybe I feel some remorse for Leo.

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I have friends who might be a little like Leo.  They have apartments and buildings that define their territory.  Maybe they, like Leo, remember those days of getting outside, taking time to smell the roses, admiring the bluebonnets in the spring, seeing the mountains, and smelling the sea breezes.

Taking trips or having vacations are important - early in life to build those memories - and also later in life to keep one’s spirit alive.  

I’ve written about building memories.  Those memories are often of parents and grandparents, family, and friends.  

Money can be an issue.  It’s hard to take a vacation in Hawaii when you barely have enough money for rent and essentials.  But, can a person scrape up enough funds to get to a free concert or lecture at the library?  Can one borrow a travel log video from the library?  Can a person take a walk on a nature trail?

Two days ago, I visited a lady who will be 100 in less than two months.  She, like Leo, is in a cage - only her cell has a door, and she can leave it when she wants.  Lately, she hasn’t gone outside (too hot in central Texas) - so she stays in her building - full of other older people, in their cells (or cages).  

 We spoke of her memories - memories of her grandparents, her small community in Oklahoma, of her high school sweetheart (who became her lifelong husband).  We walked together to the weekly worship service in the Assisted Living community. 

She has a positive attitude - and an attitude of gratitude.  

But, she confided in me that she prays for the day that “God will take her”. 

*****

There is an old store of a taxi driver in New York City.  He picks up an older lady from one of the big apartment buildings in Manhattan - on the curb with a suitcase.  

He asks the lady, “Where do you want to go?”

She replies that she is going to a hospice in the Bronx. But she asks the driver to take her to lower Manhattan where she can see the Statue of Liberty, then to the Empire State Building.  During the next hours, the cabbie drives the lady past Central Park, the United Nations, Yankee Stadium, across the Brooklyn Bridge.  They take the ferry to Staten Island, past the Bronx Zoo, to the docks to see the various ships. She asks him to drive by the church where she and her husband married 64 years before, past Wall Street, up Madison Avenue.

The taxi bill got higher and higher, but the old lady looks out the window and enjoys the sights.  Finally, as the sky starts to turn dark, she tells him to take her to the hospice location.  

There, she pays the bill with a great card, with a huge gratuity, hugs him, and carrying her suitcase walks into her final ‘home’. 

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Our memories can be like this old lady driving around New York City - refreshing those memories before we pass on. 

So, in this week of thinking of trips and vacations - where are you?  If you had $1000 with the stipulation that you must spend it all on a vacation - where would you go?  If you had $500, what might you do?  

What is “precious to you”? 

How can you break out of your “cage”?

How can you build memories?

*****

Tomorrow - more about vacations.  

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

LOVE HEALS

GOD’S LOVE IS INFINITY - NEVER-ENDING

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, JULY 18, 2023