 |
 |
Roger Day wrote: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Bridge_%28pets%29 > > I did not know there was a history or mythography behind the Rainbow Bridge prose poem, but of course it makes perfect sense since Originality is one of our last illusions--I think of the Norse or Germanic gods entering Valhalla. But Valhalla isn't a waiting stop, it's the destination. The Bridge seems a non-purging Purgatory; the completing precondition for liberating your personally held animals is that you must die too. It sounds a bit like the old concept of Limbo--a place of longing rather than of outright pain. It also makes the prospect of death animal-centric: you look forward to it as reunion rather than dread it as darkness or judgment. For all that, yes, it is true--animal care people and owners--the ones who don't just "have a pet" but (grandiosity alert) entered into an I/Thou with a cat or dog, talk to "Miles went to the Bridge in July 2002" (he actually did) or "CheesePuff is waiting for me at the Bridge." It is objectively mawkish, but otherwise intelligent people--me included? hahaha--feel a need for such beliefs. If they don't amount to a religion, they show the most extreme possible reverence and respect for what the animals gave us. It appears that few people anymore want to think of an animal--or a human--as an entirely disposable life. This is why I would much rather associate with "animal people" than people who have a demonstrated dislike of or indifference to so-called pets. Gee, does that include my ex?:-). I recall about four years ago a neighbor family--Jukes or Kallikaks, we're not sure which--through their negligence allowed their dog to run into traffic and be killed by a minivan in front of our house. The woman ostensibly in charge told the police "Oh just get rid of the body." No cremation, no burial. "Get rid of it" in around Central Jersey means throw the dead dog into a county landfill. It was sickening. It depends in large measure on whether we believe our companion animals have souls of any kind, or perhaps whether anything has a soul. And we all have our own answers. ken -- Ken Wolman http://bestiaire.typepad.com http://www.petsit.com/content317832.html ------------------- "Stare. It is the way to educate your eye, and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." -- Walker Evans